NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 


//.  D.  RAWNSLBV 


NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 


TOGETHER    WITH 


THE  PRECEPTS  OF  PTAH-HOTEP 

(THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD) 


HARDWICKE    D.  \RAWNSLEY,   M.A. 


NEW  YORK  :  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 
LONDON  :  W.  HEINEMANN 

1892 


Who  with  such  courage  and  care  brought  back  the  Pharaohs 

from  the  tomb,  and  to  whom  I  personally  owe  thanks 

for  great  kindness  and  courtesy,  shown  me 

both  at  the  Btilak  and  Gize.li  Museums, 

AND   TO 

FLINDERS     PETRIE 

To  whose  genius  for  exploration  Egyptologists  to-day  are  so 

much  indebted,  in  memory  of  an  interesting  visit 

to  him  at  Medum, 

I  DEDICATE    THIS  LITTLE  BOOK 


A  RETURN  TO  EGYPT 

There  is  a  land  where  Time  no  count  can  keep, 
Where  works  of  men  imperishable  seem ; 
Where  through  death's  barren  solitude  doth  gleam 

Undying  hope  for  them  that  sow  and  reap  : 

Yea,  land  of  life  where  death  is  but  a  deep 
Warm  slumber,  a  communicable  dream, 
Where  from  the  silent  grave  far  voices  stream 

Of  those  n'ho  tell  their  secrets  in  their  sleep. 

Land  of  the  palm-tree  and  the  pyramid, 
Land  of  sweet  waters  from  a  mystic  urn, 

Land  of  sure  rest  where  suns  shine  on  for  ever, 
I  left  thee — in  thy  sands  a  heart  was  hid, 

My  life,  my  love,  were  cast  upon  thy  river, 
And,  lo  !  to  seek  Osiris  I  return. 

H.  D.  R. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION  —  PRECEPTS  FOR  TRAVELLERS         .       .        .    ix 

CHAP.  I.  ON  TOMBS  .........      i 

II.  WITH    FLINDERS      PETRIE     AT     THE    MEDIUM    19 

PYRAMID       ........ 

III.  How    I    SAW    THE    GREAT    PHARAOH    IN  THE 

FLESH  :    A    REMINISCENCE    OF    THE    BULAK 
MUSEUM        ........     59 

IV.  SETI  I.,  THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  : 

AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH       .....  101 

V.  FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES     .        .       .       .162 

VI.  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  .....  182 
FESTAL  DIRGE  OF  KING  ANTEF  .  .  .  185 
THE  SONG  OF  THE  HARPER  .  .  .  .190 
HYMN  OR  ODE  TO  PHARAOH  ....  107 
THE  DIRGE  OF  MENEPTAH  .  200 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  VI.  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT— continued.  PAGE 

HYMN  TO  AMEN  RA 204 

HYMN  TO  THE  NILE 223 

LAMENTATIONS  OF  Isis  AND  NEPHTHYS         .  239 
THE  LAMENT  OF  THE  DEAD  WIFE  OF  PASII- 

ERENPTAH 259 

THE  HEROIC  POEM  OF  PEN-TA-UR  .        .        .  265 

VII.  THE  PRECEPTS  OF  PTAH-HOTEP  ;  BEING  A 
METRICAL  RENDERING  OF  THE  OLDEST  BOOK 
IN  THE  WORLD  .  281 


INTRODUCTION 

PRECEPTS   FOR  TRAVELLERS 

THIS  book  ends  with  precepts  for  people  in  Egypt, 
from  the  oldest  book  in  the  world,  B.C.  3666. 

It  shall  begin  with  precepts  for  travellers  in  Egypt 
in  the  year  A.D.  1892. 

Three  journeys  to  the  East  make  one  feel  that 
guide-books  are  not  sufficiently  explicit  as  to  such 
details  as  are  here  given,  and  this  must  be  my  apology 
for  venturing  to  give  the  following  bits  of  advice. 

i.  As  to  dress.  Dress  as  you  would  in  England  in 
early  summer,  but  take  a  good  wrap  :  flannel  shirts 
and  flannel  belt;  mornings  and  evenings  are  often 
chilly.  Wear  boots  rather  than  shoes,  because  there  are 
such  things  as  asps  in  Egypt ;  and  brown  rather  than 
black,  because  of  the  heat.  Cream  for  cleaning  these 
boots,  should  be  taken  out  from  England,  as  it  is  not 
always  procurable  abroad,  and  if  not  used,  the  boots 
are  soon  spoiled  by  the  dry  hot  sand.  Canvas  leg- 
gings for  men,  and  a  light  serge  skirt  (walking  length) 
for  ladies,  are  advisable,  because  donkeys  are  dirty  and 
tombs  are  dusty.  Wear  a  sun  helmet,  or  (better)  a 


x  INTRODUCTION 

soft,  grey  felt  wide-awake,  double  thickness.  Take  a 
strong  white  English-made  umbrella,  lined  with  green 
or  blue,  and  a  pair  of  glasses — smoked,  not  blue — for 
use  when  riding  over  desert-sand. 

2.  As   to   food,  everything   can   be  got  in  Cairo, 
except  good  English  tea.     On  no  pretext  be  induced 
to  drink  Nile  water,  when  at  anchor ;  avoid  it  at  all 
times,  unless  boiled.     The  Nile  is  the  drain  of  all 
Egypt.     Dwellers  on  the  banks  of  it  know  that  it 
contains  a  parasite  which  is  a  troublesome  customer, 
if  it  takes  up  its  abode  in  the  human  body.     Light 
claret  and  St.  Galmier  and  other  mineral  waters  can  be 
obtained  for  you  by  Gaze  or  Cook.     Never  let  flies 
settle  on  your  face  ;  they  may  bring  ophthalmia.    Use 
lotion  at  the  first  symptom. 

3.  Medicines.      Pyretic    saline,    quinine,     Dover's 
powder  (these  last  in  the  form  of  pills),  chlorodyne,  a 
roll  of  plaster,  lint,  a  bit  of  oil-silk,  a  box  of  mustard 
leaves,  compound  colocynth  pills,  an  eye-douche  and 
eye-lotion  obtained  in  Cairo,  are  all  that  is  necessary. 
For  use  amongst  natives,   a  box  of  eye   ointment 
(red    oxide    of    mercury).      Good    doctors    are    at 
Luxor  and  on  the  Nile  steamers;   and  in  case    of 
typhoid,  most  devoted  nursing,  with  the  best  possible 
medical  skill,  can  be  obtained  at  the  German  Dea- 
conesses' Hospital  in  Cairo.     If  ill,  do  not  stay  in  the 
hotel,  but  remove  at  once,  under  doctor's  orders,  to 
the  hospital. 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

4.  Take  a  reel  of  magnesium  wire ;  there  is  great 
difficulty  in  obtaining  a  satisfactory  lamp  for  the  con- 
tinuous burning  of  magnesium  wire.     Procure  a  tin 
reflector,  like  a  stable  lantern,  to  hold  five  candles, 
with  socket  and  long  stick.   This  enables  the  traveller 
to  see  the  more  interesting  drawings  and  sculptures, 
which  are  generally  best  preserved  on  the  upper  parts 
of  tombs  and  temples. 

Good  writing  and  drawing  materials,  note-books, 
&c.,  are  not  obtainable  in  Cairo. 

The  little  "  Kodak  "  camera  is  very  useful  for  instan- 
taneous photographs  of  figures,  &c. 

5.  Donkeys.     In  Cairo,  engage  and  pay  for  your 
donkeys  through  the  hotel  porter.     Examine  for  raw 
place  under  broad  belt  and  under  tail,  before  engag- 
ing.    If  you  find  a  donkey  falls,  change  him  ;  he  will 
do  it  again.    On  going  up  Nile,  see  the  ladies'  saddles, 
and  have  them  marked  before  leaving,  or  you  may  be 
put  off  with  native-made   instead   of  English-made 
saddles,  which  are  often  unusable,  and  the  straps  of 
which  are  generally  rotten.  See  that  your  side-saddles, 
are  not  whisked  off  from  your  steamer,  as  you  return, 
on  to  another  steamer  passing  up. 

6.  Dragomen.    However  well  recommended,  never 
expect    your  dragoman    to    know    anything    about 
Egyptian  history   or  the  monuments   up  Nile.     Go, 
knowing  what  you  want  to  see,  and  insist  on  seeing  it. 
Refuse  to  allow  your  dragoman  to  take  "  a  squeeze  " 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

for  you  from  any  of  the  monuments.  He  is  generally 
very  ready  to  do  so,  and  much  damage  has  been 
done  in  this  way. 

In  Cairo  it  will  save  you  time  and  expense  to 
engage  a  dragoman  for  the  day.  He  knows  the 
mosques  best  worth  seeing,  and  can  get  all  the  neces- 
sary orders,  and  will  easily  save  you  his  day's  pay  at 
the  bazaars. 

7.  In  dealing  with  the  people,  treat  them  as  gentle- 
men.    The  Eastern,  who  is  always  polite,  appreciates 
this.  He  understands  a  joke  also.    One  often  escapes 
the  importunity  of  those  who  ask  for  "  bakhsheesh  " 
by  nodding,  and  saying  with  a  smile,  "  Bookra,"  which 
means  "To-morrow."  Above  all  things,  remember  the 
religion  of  Muhammad  is  a  real  thing  in  Egypt.  Show 
deference  to  religious  belief  and  custom,  and  a  becom- 
ing reverence  when  you  enter  any  of  their  mosques. 
To   avoid  missing  interesting   scenes,  ascertain  the 
days  of  religious  festivals. 

8.  If  you  want  to  see  the  monuments,  remember 
that  this  cannot  possibly  be  done  in  a  crowd.  Travel- 
lers by  small  steamer  or  dahabieh  will  have  the  best 
of  it  in  this  matter. 

It  is  well  to  ask  if  there  is  any  peasant  in  the 
neighbourhood,  who  has  been  in  the  employ  of  one  or 
other  of  the  explorers  of  late  years.  These  men  have 
exact  memories,  and  can  often  point  out  to  you  objects 
of  interest  that  you  would  otherwise  miss.  Make  a 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

public  example  of  any  one  in  your  company  you  catch 
defacing  a  monument,  either  by  scribbling  his  name  or 
by  taking  fragments  of  it  away.  Posterity  will  bless 
you. 

9.  As  to   scarabs,  never  purchase,  except  at  the 
Gizeh  Museum,  unless  you  are  an  expert.     Nineteen 
out  of  twenty,  offered  for  sale  up  Nile,  were  manufac- 
tured in  the  scarab-makers'  shops,  and  buried  or  worn 
next  to  the  skin  by  the  vendor,  to  give  the  appearance 
of  age,  and  colour. 

As  to  papyri,  do  not  refuse  a  portion  of  one — it  may 
contain  a  valuable  text.  If  you  obtain  possession  of  one 
that  has  not  been  unrolled,  do  not  attempt  to  unroll  it, 
or  allow  the  man  from  whom  you  buy  it  to  do  so ;  but 
take  it  to  your  national  museum,  let  the  authorities 
examine  it,  and  if  important,  leave  it  with  them.  It  is 
necessary  to  allow  scholars  of  the  Egyptian  language 
the  fullest  possible  access  to  any  texts  that  are  dis- 
covered. 

10.  It  will  save  you  much  perplexity,  and  add  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  Nile  voyage,  if  you  have  made  yourself 
familiar,  beforehand,  with  the  main  historical  facts  and 
characteristics  of  the  various  epochs  and  dynasties ;  if 
you  know  the  cartouches  of  the  more  important  kings  • 
and  if  the  leading  features  and  symbols  of  the  ancient 
Egyptian  religion  and  divinities,  the  localities  of  the 
various  gods,  and  the  general  arrangement  of  temple 
worship,  are  grasped.     For  this  latter,  see  Mariette 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

Bey's  "Monuments  of  Upper  Egypt,"  pp.  38  and  127. 
By  no  means  fail  to  take  this  last  passage  in  your 
hand  when  visiting  the  temple  of  Denderah. 

The  best  books  for  those  who  would  study  the 
Egyptian  monuments  and  history  are  the  Egyptian 
collections  in  the  various  national  museums.  Tra- 
vellers, before  starting  for  the  Nile,  should,  if  possible, 
have  visited  the  British  Museum  and  the  Louvre,  and 
before  sailing  up  river,  should  make  a  point  of  spend- 
ing some  considerable  time  in  the  Gizeh  Museum. 

ii.  Books  to  be  read  before  going  to  Egypt: — 
Brugsch  Bey's  "  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs,"  last 
edition  ;  G.  Maspero's  "  Histoire  Ancien  des  Peuples 
de  1'Orient " ;  Page  Renouf 's  "  Hibbert  Lectures," 
1879;  "Records  of  the  Past,"  Series  I.  and  II. 
(Bagster) ;  Wilkinson's  "  Ancient  Egyptians";  Lane's 
"Modern  Egyptians";  Stuart  Poole's  "  Cities  of  Egypt" ; 
S.  Birch's  "  Ancient  History  from  the  Monuments  " ; 
Wallis  Budge's  "The  Dwellers  on  the  Nile";  Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson's  "  Ancient  Egypt "  in  the  Story  of 
the  Nations  Series;  Villiers  Stuart's  "  Nile  Gleanings"; 
Berkley's  "The  Pharaohs  and  their  People"  ;  Miss 
Edwards'  "  A  Thousand  Miles  up  the  Nile  "  ;  Ebers' 
"Egypt  Illustrated";  "The  History  of  Ancient 
Egyptian  Art,"  by  Perrotand  Chipiez;  "  The  Egyptian 
Exploration  Fund  Transactions  "  ;  and  anything  that 
Mr.  Flinders  Petrie  has  written  on  Egypt. 

Books    to  be  taken   out    to   Egypt: — Baedeker's 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

"  Lower  Egypt,"  for  Cairo,  Pyramids,  and  Sakkarah  ; 
Murray's  "  Egypt,"  last  edition,  for  up  Nile ;  Wallis 
Budge's  "The  Nile"  (this  admirable  handbook  is 
the  property  of  Messrs.  Cook  &  Son,  and  not  obtain- 
able from  the  booksellers);  Mariette  Bey's  "Outlines 
of  Ancient  Egyptian  History  "  ;  "  Mariette  Bey's  "The 
Monuments  of  Upper  Egypt." 

I  wish  here  to  express  my  personal  indebtedness  to 
the  writers  of  all  these  books  for  the  help  they  have 
accorded  me. 

HARDWICKE  D.  RAWNSLEY. 


NOTES    FOR   THE    NILE 


CHAPTER    I. 

ON   TOMBS. 

EGYPTIAN  HISTORY  proper  begins  with  the  reign  of 
King  M'na,  Mena,  or  Menes,  the  first  king  of  the  first 
dynasty.  Before  his  time  all  is  legend,  and  the 
legend  takes  the  form  of  the  assertion  that  Egypt  was 
governed  first  by  divinities,  then  by  heroes,  part  man 
part  god. 

But  Mena  is  no  mythical  person.  He  was  the  first 
overlord  or  tribal  king  who  in  his  person  united  several 
petty  chieftains  of  the  then  inhabitants  of  the  land  of 
Nile — the  dark  men  whose  skin  was  of  the  colour  of 
the  crocodile  (kam\  and  the  soil  of  whose  fields 
(the  land  of  Ham)  was  dark  as  the  colour  of  their 
hands. 

Whether  or  not  he  came  as  a  conqueror  from 
Mesopotamia,  and  moving  from  This  or  Thinis,  near 

A 


2  NOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 

Abydos,*  set  up  his  capital  at  the  "  Haven  of  the 
Good  "  (Menefer  or  Memphis  of  to-day),  and  con- 
structed a  gigantic  dam  to  turn  aside  the  river  Nile 
from  its  bed,  and  give  him  the  security  of  fields, 
encircled  by  its  silver  arm  of  defence,  is  conjectural. 

This  much  we  may  be  pretty  certain  of,  that 
Mena  reigned  not  later  than  4400  B.C.  (Brugsch), 
perhaps  as  early  as  5004  B.C.  (Mariette),  and  was 
the  founder  of  the  ancient  empire. 

For  convenience'  sake,  Egyptian  history,  the  history 
of  the  thirty-one  dynasties  of  rulers,  is  divided  into 
three  periods — the  Ancient,  the  Middle,  the  New 
Empires. 

The  Ancient  Empire  includes  the  first  eleven 
dynasties,  and,  if  we  accept  Mariette's  date,  lasted  1940 
years  ;  if  we  accept  Brugsch's  date,  it  lasted  from  4400 
B.C.  to  2500  B.C. — that  is,  1900  years ;  a  longer  time, 
as  both  of  these  writers  agree,  than  the  Christian  era. 

The  Middle  Empire  includes  the  next  nine  dynasties, 
the  twelfth  up  to  the  twentieth  inclusive,  from  2466  B.C. 
to  1200  B.C.  The  New  Empire  includes  the  remaining 
ten  dynasties,  and  lasts  from  1200  B.C.  to  360  B.C. 
After  Nectanebo,  the  last  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  came 
the  Persians,  to  be  followed  by  the  Macedonians  under 
Alexander  the  Great  in  332  B.C.,  by  the  Ptolemies  in 
305  B.C.,  and  by  the  Romans  in  27  B.C. 

*  It  has  been  suggested  of  late  that  the  modern  Girgeh  may 
be  the  site  of  ancient  This. 


OAT   TOMBS  3 

We  shall  deal  in  this  chapter  chiefly  with  funeral 
monuments  of  the  Ancient  Empire,  and  shall  only 
introduce  tomb  monuments  of  a  later  period  for  illus- 
tration's sake. 

The  belief  in  the  persistence  of  life  after  death  is 
discovered  in  all  religions.  Ancestor-worship,  or  the 
desire  to  offer  propitiatory  offerings  to  the  manes  of 
the  dead,  is  seen  in  the  "  Inferise  "  and  "  Parentalia  " 
of  Rome,  and  in  the  "  Enagismata "  of  the  Greeks. 
When  we  turn  to  Indo-European  nations,  we  find  the 
Hindu  worshipping  the  "  Pitris,"  and  the  Iranians 
believing  in  a  kind  of  disembodied  spirit  of  the  dead, 
called  "  Fravashi " ;  while,  turning  to  China,  we  note 
there  that  the  oldest  institution  of  the  oldest  civilisa- 
tion now  extant  is  the  celebration  of  rites  in  honour  of 
defunct  ancestors.* 

It  may  or  may  not  be  true,  as  according  to  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer,  that  the  rudimentary  form  in  all 
religion  is  the  propitiation  of  dead  ancestors ;  but  it 
is  certain  that,  as  far  as  Egypt  goes,  this  belief  had 
been  already  superseded  by  a  very  different  set  of 
notions  as  long  ago  as  the  founding  of  the  pyramids ; 
for  the  oldest  form  of  prayer  extant  in  that  far-oft 
time  of  advanced  Egyptian  civilisation  which  we  speak 
of  as  the  age  of  the  pyramids — 3766  B.C.  to  3366  B.C. 
— shows  us  that  the  Egyptians,  in  their  most  ancient 
propitiation  of  ancestors,  always  made  it  through 
*  Cf.  Page  Renouf,  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  124. 


4  NOTES   FOR   THE  NILE 

prayer,  not  to  the  ancestor,  but  to  Anubis,  Osiris,  or 
some  other  god ;  whilst  the  deceased  is  described  in 
the  funeral  inscription  as  "  faithful  to  the  great  God." 

Diodorus  tells  us  :  "  The  Egyptians  call  their  houses 
hostelries,  on  account  of  the  short  time  during  which 
they  inhabit  them,  but  the  tombs  they  call  eternal 
dwelling-places."  And  this,  as  Page  Renouf  points 
out  to  us,  is  literally  and  entirely  true. 

In  the  oldest  inscriptions  the  tomb  is  described  as 
"  Pa  t'eta  " —  eternal  dwelling-place ;  whilst  the  de- 
parted are  spoken  of  as  "Anchiu" — that  is,  "the 
living  ones." 

There  are  in  the  Egyptian  court  of  the  British 
Museum  the  fragments  of  the  wooden  coffin  of 
Mycerinus  or  Menkaura,  the  builder  of  the  third 
pyramid  of  Gizeh,  3633  B.C.,  and  one  of  the  names 
that  is  written  thereon,  to  describe  the  sarcophagus 
in  which  the  good  king  was  buried,  is  Neb  Anch, 
which  means  "  The  Lord  of  Life." 

That  sarcophagus,  it  is  believed,  never  contained 
the  body  of  the  pious  king ;  but  he  lives  for  ever  in 
the  praises  of  Herodotus,  for  the  historian  says  of 
him :  "  That  he  restored  the  religious  services, 
opened  the  temples,  made  the  most  just  decisions 
of  all  the  kings;  and  if  a  man  complained  of  the 
decision  of  the  judgment,  he  made  a  present  to  him 
out  of  his  own  treasury,  and  pacified  his  anger."  This 
by  way  of  parenthesis,  but  'tis  passing  strange  how, 


ON  TOMBS  5 

after  the  lapse  of  fifty-five  centuries,  the  name  of 
Mycerinus,  good  and  just,  smells  sweet,  and  blossoms 
from  the  desert  dust. 

But  where  did  the  Egyptians  stow  their  sarcophagi, 
these  coffins  that  were  the  "  chests  of  the  living,"  as 
they  were  called? 

Rest  assured  that  they  would  take  care  to  place 
them  in  security  if  possible,  and  so,  since  the  Nile 
was  a  great  high  roadway  or  high  waterway,  the 
ancients  buried  their  dead,  generally,  as  far  from  the 
Nile  banks  as  they  could,  and  though  they  did  not 
always  do  so,  yet  they  seem  to  have  affected  the 
western  side  of  the  Nile  where  possible;  partly 
because,  as  is  the  case  with  the  great  burial-ground 
that  stretches  from  Gizeh  to  Dahshur  and  the 
Medum — from  the  Pyramid  of  Abu  Roash,  in  the 
north,  to  the  Pyramid  of  Seneferu  in  the  south,  the 
Nile  flowed  farthest  away  from  their  necropolis,  and 
enemies  and  robbers  of  tombs  were  least  likely  to 
advance  from  the  barren  western  desert ;  and 
partly  because  the  great  principle  of  life,  the  sun, 
entered  the  realm  of  darkness  each  day  in  the  west, 
and  symbolised  that  sunset  of  existence  here  on  earth 
which  the  tomb  chambers  bore  witness  to. 

Sometimes,  of  course,  the  Libyan  Desert,  to  the 
west,  gave  no  limestone  plateau  to  dig  the  tombs  in, 
or  raise  the  pyramid  and  mastaba  on,  no  good  resting 
ground  for  the  eternal  dwelling-places,  and  then  the 


6  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Egyptians  sought  to  the  plateau  cliff  on  the  eastern 
side,  and,  as  at  Beni  hasan,  Tel  El  Amarna  and  El- 
Kab,  they  hewed  them  sepulchral  halls  and  pits  for  the 
burial  of  their  dead  in  the  cliffs  of  the  morning  sun. 

But  when,  as  happens  at  Gebel  Silsilis,  the  cliffs 
come  right  up  on  each  side  to  the  river,  and  good 
substantial  rock  tombs  are  obtainable  on  either  side, 
there  we  find  that  the  old  love  of  burial  in  the  land 
of  the  sunset  comes  to  the  front  again,  and  the  tomb 
chambers  are  hewn  only  on  the  western  side. 

We  have  spoken  of  sepulchral  halls  and  pits  :  what 
do  we  mean  ? 

We  remember  the  verse  in  the  psalm,  "  Our  bones 
lie  scattered  before  the  pit,  like  as  when  one  breaketh 
and  heweth  wood  upon  the  earth  ; "  or  again,  "  Thou 
hast  laid  me  in  the  lowest  pit,  in  a  place  of  darkness 
and  in  the  deep." 

We  remember  the  old  Hebrew  expression  of  "  going 
down  into  the  pit,"  and  these  sayings  are  but  so  many 
reminders  that  the  Hebrews  had  been  dwellers  in 
Egypt,  where  the  abode  of  eternity,  the  tomb  proper, 
was  always,  if  possible,  placed  at  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
shaft  sunk  into  the  solid  rock. 

The  traveller  in  Egypt  to-day,  who  enters  the  tomb 
of  Tih  or  Ptah-hotep  at  Sakkara,  the  rock  grottos  at 
Beni  hasan,  Tel  El  Amarna,  El-Kab,  or  Gebel  Silsilis, 
Asyut,  or  Aswan,  has  to  remember  that  he  is  not 
visiting  any  tomb  proper  at  all.  These  halls  and 


ON   TOMBS  7 

grottos  are  but  the  festal  meeting-places  for  friends  of 
the  dead,  votive  and  memorial  chambers.  The  dead 
man,  to  whose  memory  they  were  hewn  and  decorated, 
slept  in  his  chamber-tomb  at  the  bottom  of  the  pit, 
many  yards  beneath  the  feet  of  those  who  came  to- 
gether to  propitiate  the  gods  and  feed  the  dead  man's 
"  Ka,"  or  spirit,  or  genius,  or  double,  and  make 
mention  of  his  name  with  song  and  festal  pomp  on 
the  funeral-feast  days. 

It  is  true  that  the  poor  men  in  ancient  times  were 
simply  wrapped  in  reed  mats,  and  huddled  within  the 
clay — instances  of  which  burial  I  saw  last  year  near 
Seneferu's  Pyramid ;  but  the  man  who  could  afford  for 
his  body  his  bath  of  brine  for  seventy  days,  and  his 
tub  of  oil  and  resin  and  unguents  for  a  like  period, 
and  could  pay  from  ^60  to  ^250  for  the  embalmer's 
process,  took  care  in  life  to  have  a  proper  house 
for  eternity  prepared  for  his  mortal  remains.  This 
tomb,  under  the  ancient  empire  generally,  consisted  of 
five  parts. 

First.  A  visible  mound  of  sun-burnt  brick  or 
stone,  which  might  measure  in  length  and  breadth 
170  feet  by  86  feet,  or  36  feet  by  20  feet,  and  might 
be  13  feet  high,  which  took  the  form  of  an  oblong 
and  truncated  pyramid,  and  which  is  called  to-day  a 
"  mastaba,"  because  it  resembles  a  long  low  bench  or 
divan  in  shape,  such  as  the  Arabs  use  in  their  houses, 
and  call  by  that  name. 


8  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

The  pyramid  proper  is  probably  only  a  natural 
outgrowth  from  those  early  mounds,  or  mastabas. 

Secondly.  There  comes  an  outer  chamber,  generally 
on  the  eastern  or  northern  side,  which  forms  a  kind 
of  vestibule  to  the  inner  chamber,  and  which  some- 
times is  built  as  a  portico  or  a  prolongation  from  the 
mastaba,  as  in  the  tomb  of  Tih.  Sometimes  it  is, 
as  it  were,  hewn  out  of  the  second  skin  or  outside 
coating  of  stone  or  brick  of  the  mastaba,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  Medum  necropolis. 

Thirdly.  We  have  the  important  inner,  or  fune- 
ral chamber,  wherein  at  certain  times  the  friends 
assembled.  This  chamber  was  richly  adorned  with 
colour  and  sculpture,  and  here,  under  the  ancient 
empire,  people  saw  the  dead  man  brought  to  life 
again,  as  far  as  art  could  do  it,  and  superintending, 
as  was  his  habit  in  life,  the  labour  of  his  field,  the 
hunting,  the  fishing,  the  boat-building,  &c.,  that  he 
had  cared  for  on  earth. 

Fourthly.  At  the  further  end  of  this  chamber  was 
a  recess,  walled  across,  and  having  generally  only  a 
tiny  slit  in  the  screen  wall  for  the  fumes  of  incense, 
used  on  the  memorial  days  to  pass  inside.  Some- 
times even  this  means  of  access  was  closed.  This 
stone  recess  or  cupboard  was  called  the  "  sirdab,"  and 
in  it  were  placed  life-like  images  of  the  deceased  carved 
in  stone  or  wood,  which  might  be  looked  upon  as  so 
many  media  or  forms  for  the  Ka,  or  genius,  or  spirit, 


ON  TOMBS  9 

of  the  departed  to  enter  into  and  inhabit :  so  many 
possibilities  of  a  kind  of  spirit-possession  or  re-embodi- 
ment for  the  defunct.  In  front  was  generally  placed 
a  little  offering  stool  .and  votive  slab.  For  the 
sirdab  was  the  holy  of  holies  of  the  tomb  guest- 
chamber. 

But  the  important  part  of  the  eternal  house  was 
the  fifth  or  last  part — viz.,  the  pit.  This  was  driven 
down  into  the  solid  rock,  sometimes  from  the  ante- 
chamber, sometimes  from  the  inner  chamber,  some- 
times from  the  centre  of  the  mastaba,  and  hewn  of 
such  a  size  as  that  a  mummy  or  sarcophagus  could  be 
lowered  into  place.  Such  a  pit  shaft  is  familiar  to  all 
who  visit  Campbell's  tomb  at  Gizeh. 

At  the  bottom  of  this  pit,  40  or  50  feet  deep,  was 
hewn  a  side  passage,  generally  on  the  south  and  east 
side,  that  gradually  broadened  out  into  a  good-sized 
chamber ;  the  trend  of  this  passage  was  so  arranged  as 
to  bring  this  subterranean  chamber  exactly  under  the 
upper  or  guest-chamber,  where  from  time  to  time  the 
friends  assembled  to  pour  wine  and  offer  flowers  and 
incense  upon  the  sirdab,  or  recess,  behind  whose  wall 
were  hid  the  images  or  statues  of  the  departed. 

This  was  the  tomb  proper ;  the  sarcophagus  rested 
there,  and,  once  lowered  down  the  shaft  and  taken  into 
its  house  of  eternity,  a  huge  block  of  stone  was 
lowered  into  place,  to  fill  the  entrance  into  the  passage 
at  the  bottom  of  the  well  or  shaft.  The  shaft  itself 


io  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

was  filled  up  with  rubble  and  sand  and  stones ;  and 
the  dead  man's  body  waited  for  the  3000  years  to 
pass  before  it  should  arise  from  its  dust  and  begin  its 
earthly  life  again. 

In  such  sanctity  of  undisturbed  repose  have  many 
of  the  Egyptian  dead,  buried  under  the  ancient 
empire,  remained  till  this  day,  that  explorers  have 
even  found  in  the  soft  sand,  the  tracks  of  the  feet  of 
the  bearers  who  bore  the  body  to  its  rest  in  the  sub- 
terranean tomb-chamber,  more  than  3000  years  before 
Christ. 

Of  course,  when  the  pyramids  arose  the  ante- 
chamber and  chamber  were  dispensed  with,  and 
friends  met  in  the  little  temple  outside  the  pyramid 
to  offer  prayer  and  praise  and  vows  in  memory  of  the 
dead  king. 

Such  a  continuity  of  endowment  was  allowed  to 
that  old  Egyptian  way  of  worship,  that  in  the  time  of 
the  twenty-sixth  dynasty  we  find  from  a  tablet  in  the 
Louvre  that  a  priest  of  Chufu  or  Cheops,  Psamtik 
by  name,  is  keeping  up  the  memory  of  Chufu,  who 
built  the  Great  Pyramid  and  endowed  the  temple 
services  more  than  2000  years  before,  according  to 
the  prescribed  ritual  of  pyramid  days,  and  the  pious 
wishes  of  the  founder.  Let  the  Christian  disestab- 
lishes and  disendowers  of  particular  forms  of  religion, 
on  the  ground  of  emptiness  of  title  after  lapse  of  years, 
note  this. 


ON  TOMBS  II 

When  we  turn  away  from  the  mastabas  of  the 
ancient  dynasty,  and  leave  the  necropolis  of  Gizeh 
and  Sakkara,  Abusir,  Dahshur  and  Medum,  for  the 
rock  grottos  of  Beni  hasan,  Tel  El  Amarna,  El-Kab, 
Silsilis,  Asyut,  and  Aswan,  we  find  that  the  ante- 
chamber has  been  dispensed  with,  and  we  enter 
beneath  a  porch,  at  once,  into  the  Hall  of  Guests, 
often  splendidly  adorned,  with  its  niche,  or  sirdab, 
behind  whose  partition  wall  the  statues  of  the  defunct 
were  immured,  and  sometimes  in  which,  perhaps  with 
little  more  than  a  low  protecting  wall  between  the 
spectators  and  themselves,  their  life-size  statues, 
carved  in  the  living  rock,  sat  to  receive  the  gifts  of 
worshippers.* 

Now,  what  we  have  to  bear  in  mind  is  that  the  tomb 

*  At  El-Kab,  and  also  at  Aswan,  in  the  tombs  opened  by 
Sir  W.  Grenfell,  there  were  evidences  on  the  ground,  of  a  par- 
tition wall  which  may  at  one  time  have  entirely  screened  the 
statues  from  sight,  but  which  in  the  lapse  of  years  had  been 
broken  away  by  the  tomb-breakers.  It  is  true  that  in  tombs 
of  the  middle  or  later  empire  the  sirdab  disappears.  This 
may  perhaps  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  embalmer's 
process  became  so  perfect  that  it  was  not  felt  necessary  to  carve 
any  life-size  statues  for  the  Ka,  or  double,  or  genius,  to  enter  into 
and  inhabit.  And  it  is  thought  that,  with  the  falling  away  of 
this  practice  of  carving  statues,  another  practice  may  have  after 
obtained — viz.,  the  bringing  of  the  wooden  coffin  from  its  rest- 
chamber  to  the  guest-chamber  at  stated  intervals,  or,  as  is  more 
probable,  of  having  a  dummy  coffin  to  use  for  this  purpose  on 
festal  days. 


12  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

proper  is  not  here,  but  that  a  pit  or  shaft  has  been 
sunk  deep  down  into  the  rock,  sometimes  as  at  Asyut 
and  Beni  hasan,  from  inside  the  guest-chamber,  some- 
times, as  at  El-Kab,  from  the  terrace  outside,  or  from 
within  the  portico  to  the  guest-chamber ;  and  that  the 
tomb  is  beneath  our  feet  as  we  gaze  at  the  mural 
decorations  of  the  guest-chamber  above. 

Occasionally  in  these  guest-chambers  is  seen  a  slab 
whereon  a  likeness  of  the  mummy  was  laid  at  certain 
seasons,  or  whereon  his  body  was  placed  for  a  time, 
before  it  was  finally  taken  down  by  pit,  or  sloping 
underground  passage  to  its  sarcophagus  beneath. 
Sometimes  upon  the  entrances  to  this  subterranean  rest- 
chamber  are  seen  bits  of  the  clay  seal,  still  sticking, 
which  sealed  the  doorway  to  the  block-fitting,  while 
clay  seals,  cones  of  clay  six  inches  long,  have  been 
found  in  the  sand  close  by. 

What  we  have  still  to  remember  is  that  we  who  visit 
the  tomb  of  Tih  at  Sakkara,  or  the  tomb  of  Ameni, 
or  Knoum-hotep,  to-day  at  Beni  hasan,  are  really  not 
in  their  tombs  at  all,  but  only  in  the  guest-chamber 
above  the  tomb,  wherein  of  old  time  the  friends  met  on 
stated  occasions,  to  do  honour  to  the  dead  man,  not  yet 
out  of  mind. 

The  stone  sarcophagus  and  the  sarcophagus-chamber 
were  often  unornamented,  the  latter,  if  ornamented, 
only  had  lists  of  festival  days  and  calendars  of  offerings 
upon  its  walls,  such  as  we  see  upon  the  walls  of  the 


ON   TOMBS  13 

tomb  of  Horhotpou,  the  son  of  Sonit-she,  a  noble  who 
lived  at  Thebes  in  the  eleventh  dynasty,  2500  B.C. 
Visitors  to  the  Gizeh  Museum  will  remember  that 
wonderful  tomb,  with  its  great  calendar  of  days  for 
offerings,  its  wall  paintings  of  bows  and  arrows,  of  mace 
and  hatchet,  .of  pots  of  oil  and  jars  of  wine,  of  mirrors, 
of  shoes,  of  little  bags  of  unguent  and  henna  for  the 
hands,  or  of  kohl  powder  for  the  eyes,  its  pots  of  seven 
essences,  its  green  and  black  paint  for  face  or  body ; 
the  accessories,  in  short,  of  a  gentleman's  toilet  in  the 
last  days  of  the  ancient  empire,  all  so  necessary  to 
the  wellbeing  of  the  Ka,  or  spirit  of  Horhotpou,  in  the 
world  of  Amend,  the  world  beyond  the  grave,  when  he 
came  visiting  the  dead. 

The  important  decoration  of  these  tomb-chambers 
was  lavished  on  the  guest-hall,  and,  as  in  the 
tombs  of  the  kings,  upon  the  long  subterranean  pas- 
sages. 

But  in  the  guest-chambers  of  the  tombs  of  the 
early  empire,  there  is  a  very  great  difference  in  the 
motive  of  the  ornament,  from  that  which  is  found  in 
tombs  of  the  middle  and  new  empire.  In  the  tombs 
of  the  end  of  the  middle,  and  beginning  of  the  new 
empire,  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  the  whole  idea  of 
the  decoration  is  to  set  forth  the  journey  of  the  soul 
in  the  next  world  through  all  the  ordeals  it  has  to  go, 
upon  its  way  to  the  Hall  of  Judgment  and  Justification. 
The  gods  are  the  principals  in  all  these  scenes ;  and 


I4  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  spirit  of  evil,  the  serpents  spitting  fire,  the  burning 
fiery  furnaces,  the  crocodiles  that  open  their  jaws,  are 
some  of  the  torments  the  soul  must  meet  with  on  its 
way  to  its  eternal  rest. 

Visitors  to  the  tomb  of  Seti  I.  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Kings — Seti  whose  white  sarcophagus  this  day  is  seen 
at  Sir  John  Sloan e's  Museum — will  remember  the 
fiery  serpents  and  the  pictured  horrors  of  hell,  through 
which  the  dead  king  felt,  in  his  lifetime,  he  must  needs 
pass,  on  his  way  to  eternal  life. 

The  men  who  adorned  these  guest-chambers  evi- 
dently felt  that  the  spirit  of  the  dead  must  pass  to 
purgatory,  and  prove  by  its  doings  in  the  spirit  as  well 
as  in  the  flesh,  that  it  has  won  the  immortality  pro- 
mised, and  was  fit  to  be  justified  in  the  judgment-hall 
of  Osiris.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
guests  did  not  enter  these  tomb  chambers  or  passages. 
They  met  for  funeral  feast,  at  some  tomb  chapel  far 
away.  These  wall  writings  were  for  the  study  of  the 
king  in  his  lifetime,  who  prepared  his  eternal  home, 
and  for  the  reading  of  the  lonely  Ka  when  it  came  to 
visit  the  dead  king.  Once  the  body  had  been  borne  to 
its  rest,  the  entrance  to  the  great  tomb  passage  was 
closed,  and  hid,  if  possible,  from  view. 

But  in  the  tomb-guest-chambers  of  the  earlier 
empire,  with  which  we  are  dealing  now,  there  was  no 
representation  of  gods  to  give  judgment,  nor  of  trials 
to  justify.  The  dead  man  is  represented  at  home 


ON  TOMBS  15 

and  in  peace.  His  wife  is  at  his  side,  and  holds  him 
tenderly  by  the  arm  ;  his  children  are  at  his  feet,  or 
round  his  knees.  The  very  common  attitude  of  en- 
dearment is  that  the  wife  or  child  kneels  or  squats  by 
the  side  of  the  husband  or  father,  and  strokes  the 
calf  of  the  good  gentleman's  leg.  He  walks  abroad 
to  see  how  the  harvest  is  getting  on,  he  superintends 
the  vintage,  gazes  at  the  brickmakers  or  boat-builders. 
Dancing  girls  are  before  him,  and  acrobats  and 
wrestlers  tumble  and  wrestle.  He  goes  out  hunting 
the  crocodile,  or  snaring  the  wild  fowl,  and  when  he 
returns  he  sits  happily  in  the  ancestral  chair ;  a  gar- 
land of  flowers  is  on  his  head,  and  his  wife  holds  a 
great  lotus  lily  to  his  nose  for  him  to  smell ;  and  ser- 
vants slay  the  ox,  and  gather  the  grapes,  and  store  the 
honey,  and  press  the  wine,  and  bake  the  cakes,  and 
cut  the  sheaves,  and  bring  to  him  offerings  of  all 
flowers  and  fruits,  and  give  him  of  the  labour  of  their 
hands — fish,  flesh,  fowl,  flowers,  fruit,  beer,  wine,  "  in 
all  manner  of  abundance,  richly  to  enjoy";  while  the 
priests,  wearing  the  panther  skin  and  shorn  of  head, 
sing  and  say,  "  A  royal  table  of  propitiation  grant 
Anubis,  who  dwells  in  the  divine  house.  May  sepul- 
ture be  granted  in  the  nether  world  in  the  land  of  the 
divine  Amenti,  the  ancient,  the  good,  the  great,  to 
him,  the  departed,  who  is  faithful  to  the  Great  God. 
May  he  advance  upon  the  blissful  paths  upon  which 
those  advance  who  are  faithful  to  the  Great  God.  May 


16  NOTES   ON  THE  NILE 

the  funeral  oblations  be  paid  to  him  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  at  the  feasts  of  the  great  and  of  the  small 
heat,  at  the  feasts  of  each  month,  and  the  half-month, 
and  every  day,"  &c.  &c.  "  May  his  nostrils  breathe 
the  north  wind,  and  may  he  drink  of  the  depth  of  the 
river." 

Death,  if  it  is  hinted  at  by  sight  of  the  funeral- 
sledge,  is  at  once  dismissed.  Life  is  the  motive  of 
the  wall-sculpture  and  painting. 

Round  about  the  walls  are  the  droves  of  cattle  and 
asses,  and  all  the  operations  of  the  farm  are  depicted. 
Little  bits  of  descriptive  dialogue  are  carved  above 
them.  For  example :  "  '  This  is  the  killing  of  the  ox.' 
'These  are  the  harvestmen.'  '  Hold  hard,'  says  a  master 
to  his  servant.  '  Thy  will  be  done,'  replies  the  lad. 
'  This  donkey  is  wild/  says  another.  '  I'll  tame  him,' 
answers  a  fourth.  '  Beware  of  the  stick,'  says  a  don- 
key-boy to  a  recalcitrant  donkey.  '  Oh,  you  lazy- 
bones,' cries  a  herdsman  to  the  oxen.  '  If  you  bring 
me  eleven  thousand  and  nine  stalks  of  flax,  I  will 
comb  them,'  cries  a  flax-dresser.  '  Make  haste,  and 
none  of  your  chatter,  you  prince  of  clodhoppers,' 
replies,  somewhat  rudely,  his  fellow-labourer." 

Now,  what  does  all  this  happy  pastoral  life  upon 
the  funeral  guest-chamber  of  the  ancient  empire  mean. 
Are  these  people  bringing  their  legs  of  beef,  and 
geese  and  ducks,  and  pigeons  and  fruits,  to  offer  them 
as  sweet  sacrifice  to  the  soul  of  the  departed  or  to 


ON  TOMBS  17 

the  god  for  his  soul  ?  Are  the  dancing-girls  and 
tumblers  and  single-stick  players  performing  a  kind 
of  religious  tumbling  and  dancing  and  play  of  a  sacred 
propitiatory  character  ?  Or  is  it  the  faith  of  the  early 
Egyptians  that  the  world  beyond  the  grave  is  but  a 
repetition  of  the  world  this  side  of  it,  and  that,  if  not 
yet,  at  least  one  day,  the  dead  man  will  wake  up  and 
take  his  old  interest  in  his  old  life's  work,  whilst  even 
at  this  time,  before  his  bodily  resurrection,  his  "Ka" 
or  spirit,  or  double,  is  in  full  sympathy  with  all  that  is 
going  on  here  on  earth,  and  cares  as  much  to  see  his 
sons  go  forth  to  the  harvest,  and  his  daughters  bind 
their  brows  with  flowers,  and  his  servants  bring  rich 
produce  home  from  field  and  river,  as  ever  he  did  in  the 
days  when  he  saw  the  great  Nile  swell  out  and  shine 
in  middle  plain,  and  the  green  carpet  of  the  corn  and 
lentil  change  beneath  the  sun  to  gleaming  gold. 

That  secret  is  still  a  secret  of  the  tomb ;  the  walls 
tell  us  much,  but  they  will  not  cry  out  yet  to  tell  us 
more  in  the  way  of  answer  of  this  question.  Egypt- 
ologists are  still  puzzled  on  this  score. 

But  the  chief  interest  of  these  funeral  guest-chambers 
centres  in  this  fact  of  the  portraiture  of  the  contempo- 
rary life  of  Egypt. 

Not  only  are  we  allowed  to  see  how  the  arts  flourish 
and  decay,  from  the  excellence  and  falling-off  in 
draughtsmanship,  in  colour,  and  sculpture,  of  the  wall 
pictures,  but  from  them  we  can  see  the  ideals  of  happy 


1 8  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

life  on  earth  then,  and  guess  at  the  fears  and  hopes  of 
the  future  world  those  old  Egyptians  entertained. 

I  confess  it  is  rather  an  eye-opener  to  find  that  the 
art  of  sculpture  in  low  relief  and  portraiture,  and  sense 
of  humour,  are  at  their  best  in  the  third,  and  fourth,  and 
fifth,  and  sixth  dynasty  tombs  ;  that,  marvellous  as  is 
the  skill  of  the  wall  decorators  in  the  spacious  times  of 
that  great  Elizabeth  of  old  Egypt,  Queen  Hatshepset  * 
of  the  seventeenth  dynasty,  1600  B.C.,  as  evidenced  on 
the  walls  of  her  terraced  temple  of  Deir  El  Bahari  at 
Thebes,  the  hand  of  the  sculptor  and  painter  is  quite 
as  skilful  in  the  times  when  Tih  and  Ptah-hotep  entered 
their  "  houses  of  eternity,"  in  the  fifth  dynasty,  say 
more  than  1800  years  before  that  date,  in  3400  B.C. 

But  the  tombs  of  Tih  and  Ptah-hotep  f  are  forgotten 
in  the  excellent  beauty  of  sculpture  and  colour  of  the 
pre-pyramid  days,  and  it  is  to  the  oldest  necropolis 
of  Egypt  we  must  turn  to  find  examples  of  that  ancient 
art. 

*  Spelt  also  Hatasu.          f  Spelt  also  Thi  and  Ptah-hetep. 


CHAPTER    II. 

WITH    FLINDERS    PETRIE    AT    THE    MEDUM 
PYRAMID. 

ONE  has  a  general  way  of  thinking  and  speaking  as  if 
the  Pyramid  times  were  the  oldest  whereof  Egypt  has 
record ;  and,  standing  at  the  top  of  Chufu's  Pyramid, 
and  looking  down  over  the  long  lines  of  mastabas  to 
the  west,  one  thinks  that  one  is  surely  gazing  on  the 
tomb  chambers  of  the  earliest  men  who  hereabout 
entered  rest. 

But  one  is  rudely  wakened  from  this  dream.  Away 
to  the  north  the  round-headed  bastion-hill  of  Abu 
Roash  reminds  us  that  there,  amid  the  tons  of  little 
votive  pots  and  platters  that  bestrew  the  ground,  once 
rose  the  temples  and  tomb-chambers  of  some  king  who 
had  entered  his  eternal  house  before  the  Pyramids  of 
Gizeh  were  thought  of;  and,  again,  if  one  gazes  to 
the  south,  one  sees  the  curious -shaped  Step  Pyramid 
of  six  terraces,  each  terrace  30  to  38  feet  in  height 
above  the  other,  towering  up  from  a  base  352  by  396, 
to  a  height  of  197  feet.  That  is  the  Pyramid  of 


20  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Kochome,  or  the  Black  Bull  Place.  That  was  the 
tomb  of  a  King  Ata,  or  Uenephes,  the  fourth  king  of 
the  first  dynasty,  of  whom  tradition  says  that  "  in  his 
time  there  was  sore  famine  in  Egypt ;  nevertheless,  it 
pleased  him  to  employ  his  people  in  building  of  this 
pyramid."  Who  knows,  it  may  have  been  a  bit  of 
work  given  to  the  people,  that  by  it  they  might  earn 
bread.  All  that  one  need  realise,  as  the  western  sun 
turns  the  distant  pyramid  into  steps  of  gleaming 
amethyst,  is,  that  there-under  was  laid  to  rest  the 
builder  of  the  oldest  monument  in  Egypt — nay,  the 
oldest  existing  tomb  monument  in  the  world. 

But  one  wishes  to  hear  and  see  something  of  the 
life  of  that  distant  time,  and  King  Ata  and  his  Step 
Pyramid  in  this  matter  are  dumb. 

It  is  not  till  one  has  left  Kochome,  the  site  of  the 
"Black  Bull,"  and  passed  on  along  the  Nile  for  another 
twenty  miles  to  the  south,  that  one  finds  oneself 
opposite  another  bull  place,  or  Bull-town,  Mi-Turn, 
or  Medum,  over  which  rises  a  gigantic  tomb 
monument,  whose  builder  has  left  behind  him  actual 
records  of  his  life,  and  about  whose  mighty  pyramid 
lie  tombs  of  princes  and  princesses  that  come  forth 
out  of  their  dust  and  speak  to  us  plainly  of  the  days, 
in  the  dawn  of  Egyptian  history. 

King  Seneferu,  last  of  the  third  dynasty,  or  first  of 
the  fourth  dynasty,  may  have  had  that  older  Step 
Pyramid  in  his  mind  when  he  determined  to  build  this 


AT  THE  M&DUM  PYRAMID  21 

great  blunt-topped  pyramid,  115  feet  high,  in  three 
stages  of  70,  20,  25  feet,  of  the  white  Mokattam  lime- 
stone. And  "  He  who  makes  Good  " — for  that  is  be- 
lieved to  be  the  strict  meaning  of  the  name  "  Seneferu  " 
— was  determined  to  make  good  his  mason-work.  It 
is  in  finish  exquisite. 

With  Seneferu  began  the  custom  of  adding  to  the 
cartouche  that  bore  the  name  his  parents  gave  him,  a 
second  cartouche  containing  his  holy  name  ;  and,  in 
addition  to  this,  of  adding  to  the  double  cartouche- 
three  sounding  titles :  "  The  Sun  Hor,  who  dispenses 
light  and  life,  blessing  and  prosperity  ;  "  "  The  Lord  of 
both  Kingly  Diadems  ; "  "  The  Image  of  Honour  of 
the  Golden  Hor,  the  conqueror  of  his  opponent."  But 
it  is  not  only  that  he  was  "  Maker  of  the  Good,"  but 
that  he  was  styled  "  Lord  of  Truth,"  that  makes  this 
kingly  personage  in  the  dawn  of  Egyptian  history  so 
interesting. 

Benevolence  and  justice  were  evidently  felt  to  be 
sovereign  powers  in  pre-pyramid  days,  the  days  of 
B.C.  3766,  the  days  when  Seneferu  was  king. 

I  said  that  Seneferu  was  the  first  king  of  ancient 
Egypt  who  stands  clearly  out  as  a  living  ruler.  Ata 
may  have  built  his  Step  Pyramid  500  years  before  his 
time,  but  then,  except  as  a  name  and  a  legend,  Ata 
has  perished  from  among  the  children  of  men ;  but 
the  traveller  in  the  Sinaitic  peninsula  may  see  clearly 
to-day,  carved  on  the  rocks  above  the  "  mafkat,"  or 


22  NOTES    FOR   THE  NILE 

"  turquoise "  mines  in  Wady  Maghara,  a  picture  in 
stone  of  this  remarkable  monarch  Seneferu,  "Van- 
quisher of  Foreign  Peoples,"  as  he  is  styled,  who 
worked  the  mines  and  smote  with  the  sword  the 
dwellers  in  the  wild  hills,  whose  children  should  one 
day  try  conclusions,  in  sight  almost  of  those  turquoise 
mines,  with  Moses,  the  Man  of  God,  and  his  Hebrew 
horde. 

Professor  Rawlinson  in  his  "  Ancient  Egypt,"  in  the 
"  Story  of  the  Nations"  Series,  p.  3,  c.  55,  gives  an 
excellent  sketch  of  the  King  Seneferu  as  he  is 
there  figured,  smiting  down  with  his  stone-headed 
club  one  of  those  Sinaitic  foemen — a  stone  picture 
which  I  remember  gazing  upon  with  double  interest, 
as  it  gave  me  an  idea  how,  and  with  what  arms,  the 
kings  of  his  day  fought  when  they  worked  their  mafkat 
mines,  and  drilled  the  rock  in  quest  of  turquoises. 

Seneferu,  "  the  Maker  of  the  Good,"  Seneferu,  "  the 
Lord  of  Truth,"  Seneferu,  the  mining  engineer,  Sene- 
feru, "  the  Vanquisher  of  Foreign  Peoples ; "  Seneferu, 
of  whom  it  was  written  in  the  old  Theban  historical 
papyrus,  "  Then  was  raised  up  the  holiness  of  King 
Seneferu  as  a  good  king  over  the  whole  country,"  was 
determined  to  live  again  in  the  eyes  of  far-off  cen- 
turies, and  the  rock-picture  of  Wady  Maghara  gives  us 
a  very  lively  image  of  the  masterful  king. 

But  Seneferu  believed  also  that  his  body  should  rise 
again  ;  and  so,  in  a  lonely  place  to  the  far  south, 


AT  THE,  M&DffM  PYRAMID  23 

when  as  yet  only  two  pyramids — the  pyramid  of  Abu 
Roash,  to  the  far  north,  and  the  Step  Pyramid  of  Ata, 
fourth  king  of  the  first  dynasty — lifted  up  their  shining 
masses  from  the  Libyan  desert  sands,  Seneferu  planned 
a  mighty  pyramid  which  he  called  the  "  Pyramid  of 
the  Rising,"  or  Resurrection,  and  added  a  third  great 
monument  of  gleaming  masonry  that  should  eclipse 
the  tombs  of  all  who  went  before  or  after,  and  keep 
his  body  safe,  and  his  name  secure,  through  all  ages. 

The  Nile  traveller,  if  he  has  a  heart,  will  probably 
at  the  end  of  his  voyage  find  the  words  "  Mi  Turn," 
or  Bull  Town,  written  upon  it,  for  that  glorious  Me- 
dum  pyramid,  with  its  three  stages  of  shining 
masonry  lifting  themselves  to  heaven,  out  of  the 
brown  mound  of  debris  at  its  base,  haunts  the  mind ; 
and  after  many  days  the  traveller  finds  that  none  of 
the  temples  and  tombs  he  has  seen  up  Nile,  has 
banished  the  impression  made  by  that  lonely  pile, 
whose  triple-terraced,  mountainous  mass  of  yellow  stone 
rises  from  the  border  of  the  plain  of  farmers'  paradise, 
to  the  west  of  Wasta,  fifty-five  miles  south  of  Cairo. 

Whose  tomb  was  it  ?  That  was  not  exactly  known 
till  quite  recently.  It  had  been  said  to  have  been 
built  by  King  Seneferu,  the  founder  of  the  fourth 
Egyptian  dynasty,  about  3766  B.C.,  but  savants  had 
cast  doubts  upon  this,  and  it  has  been  left  for  Mr. 
Flinders  Petrie  to  show,  by  patient  excavation,  that, 
at  any  rate  as  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Amenophis  III., 


24  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  Thothmes  I.,  and  Seti  I.,  the  pyramid  in  question 
was  looked  upon  as  Seneferu's  building — Seneferu, 
"  Lord  of  Truth  "  and  "  Maker  of  the  Good,"  who 
was  long  after  his  death  looked  upon  as  a  god — 
Seneferu,  whose  temple,  perhaps  owing  to  this  fact, 
still  stands  intact  at  the  base  of  his  vast  pyramid  tomb 
to  this  day.* 

One  had  often  heard  of  the  False  Pyramid,  as  the 
Fellaheen  call  it,  Haram  el-Kaddab — calling  it  so, 
because,  in  their  ignorance  of  the  plan  of  pyramid 
building,  they  thought  that  these  steps,  which  their 
fathers  had  made  to  appear,  by  a  process  of  stripping 
the  pyramid  of  outer  casing,  were  evidence  that  the 
pyramid  had  never  been  finished.  One  had  thought 
of  it  as  being,  for  all  this  "  falseness  "  or  unfinished- 
ness  of  appearance,  the  oldest  pyramid  —  Sakkara's 
Step  Pyramid  only  excepted  —  standing  in  Egypt. 
One  had  fancied  the  men  hard  at  work  piling  stone, 
down  at  Medum,  before  ever  the  quarrymen  had 
been  called  upon  to  hew  a  block  in  the  quarries  of 
Mokattam  and  Turra  at  the  command  of  Chufu, 
Chafra,  or  Menkaura.  And  so  one  had  much  wished 
to  see  this  forerunner  of  the  pyramids  at  Gizeh. 

Even  if  the  pyramid  of  Seneferu  should,  on  nearer 

*  Seneferu  is  said  by  Brugsch  Bey  to  have  been  the  last  king 
of  the  third  dynasty,  date  3766  ;  by  Mariette  Bey,  who  dates 
the  third  dynasty  as  commencing  B.C.  4449,  he  is  looked  upon 
as  first  king  of  the  fourth  dynasty,  date  B.C.  4235. 


AT  THE   MEDtjM   PYRAMID  25 

acquaintance,  disappoint  one  with  the  manner  of  its 
masonry,  or  the  finish  of  it,  at  any  rate  close  by  were 
mastabas  of  the  fourth  dynasty ;  there  were  the  tombs 
of  Nefer  Mat  and  Atot  his  wife,  with  their  almost 
unique  evidence  of  early  Egyptian  mosaics,  by  way  of 
ornament,  and  then,  side  by  side  with  these,  there 
would  be  visible,  we  hoped,  the  tomb-chamber  in 
which  Mariette  found  those  two  remarkable  life-size 
sitting  statues  in  stone,  of  Rahotep  and  his  wife 
Nefert,  whose  liquid  eyes  and  delicate  drapery  and 
colouring  are  the  marvel  of  the  Gizeh  Museum. 

So  it  needed  little  persuasion  on  the  part  of  the 
great  gloriously  shining  Pyramid  of  Medum  to  call 
one  from  the  Nile  steamer,  and  bid  one  make  one's 
way  across  the  plain  to  its  base. 

We  had  hoped  to  accomplish  our  visit  between  sun- 
rise and  3  P.M.,  when  we  knew  the  solitary  afternoon 
train  would  have  conveyed  us  from  Rekkah,  up 
through  the  evening  lights  of  the  rich  Nile  land  to 
Cairo,  but  our  steamer  stuck,  now  here,  now  there, 
and  it  was  already  half-past  four  when  we  stopped  the 
engines  off  the  mud  village  of  Rekkah,  or  Riggah,  and 
with  a  bundle  of  food  in  our  hands  and  a  sailor  to 
carry  a  donkey-saddle,  we  bade  adieu  to  our  fellow- 
passengers  and  pushed  off  for  the  Nile  bank. 

It  is  not  so  easy  a  matter  as  at  first  might  appear, 
this  landing  from  a  Nile  boat  on  a  Nile  bank,  for  the 
Nile  mud  is  as  slippery  as  grease,  and  what  looks  solid 


26  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

is  found  to  be  soft,  and  vice  versa.  But  we  did  not 
mind  getting  in  up  to  the  knees  for  the  sake  of  good 
King  Seneferu ;  and,  struggling  from  the  slime,  we  got 
on  to  the  hot  sand,  and  entering  the  dirty  little  village, 
asked  for  the  railway  station.  We  did  not  want  a 
train,  but  we  wanted  donkeys,  and  we  believed  that 
the  station-master,  who  in  these  out-of-the-way  villages 
is  the  centre  of  light  and  learning,  would  be  the  pro- 
vider of  so  much  ass-flesh  as  would  bear  us  to  the 
pyramid.  He  could  talk  English  a  little,  we  spoke 
Arabic  a  little,  and  at  once  he  despatched  a  bare- 
legged railway  porter  in  blue  blouse  and  red  tarboosh 
to  harry  Rekkah  for  donkeys.  "  One  donkey  he  knew 
of;  Allah  might  give  two,  but  of  this  he  was  not  sure." 
Heaven  smiled  upon  us,  for  a  shout  was  heard  half  a 
mile  away,  and  that  shout  echoed  another  half  mile ; 
there  was  a  running  together  of  camels  and  buffaloes 
and  sheep  in  a  very  far-off  field,  and  a  little  cloud  of 
dust  upon  the  railway-line  embankment  told  us  that  our 
ass  had  been  caught  and  was  coming  down  the  six-foot, 
at  its  own  pace,  to  bear  the  "  Khawaja  "  to  Medum. 

We  saddled  up,  and  the  donkey's  master  tapping 
the  patient  creature  on  the  nose,  for  bridles  are  an 
unknown  quantity  in  the  Medum  donkey-world,  we 
went  back  up  the  highway — the  railway-line,  for  a 
quarter  of  a  mile.  We  then  turned  into  the  pleasant 
green  fields  of  beans  and  clover,  and  while  the  larks 
sang,  and  the  paddy-birds  strutted,  and  the  kites  flew 


AT  THE  M&D&M  PYRAMID  27 

high,  we  passed  towards  the  sunset  and  the  mighty 
memorial  tomb  of  Seneferu. 

Away  to  our  right,  as  we  rode  over  the  rich  plain 
towards  the  barren  desert  mounds,  was  seen  the  little 
palm-girt  village  of  Ghurzeh ;  on  our  left,  to  the  south, 
like  barren  islands  in  a  sea  of  greenery,  appeared  the 
villages  of  Soft,  Kafr  Soft,  and  Haram  or  Haram  Soft ; 
whilst  between  Kafr  Soft  and  Haram  Soft  was  visible 
the  tiny  village  that  was  the  centre  of  the  great 
religious  world  of  the  fourth  dynasty  in  this  place — 
the  Bull  Town,  "  Mi  Turn  "— Medum  of  to-day. 

It  was  good  to  hear  how  the  old  names  had  clung 
to  these  villages.  No  one  would  have  thought,  from 
looking  upon  that  little  village  nearest  the  desert,  by 
which  our  path  presently  took  us,  that  there  had  once 
stood  close  by  a  pyramid ;  but  as  late  as  thirty  years 
ago,  the  remains  of  a  pyramid  were  visible  there,  and 
the  present  village  is  built  out  of  the  mud  bricks  that 
the  old  pyramid-builders  made. 

We  wind  in  and  out,  now  west,  now  south,  for  the 
lands  are  divided  out  in  squares,  and  we  go  along  the 
edges  of  the  allotments.  Whole  families  are  squatting 
by  their  yellow-faced,  lop-eared  sheep,  or  their  long- 
eared  goats  or  grunting  buffaloes.  Here  a  tiny  tot  of 
a  child  watches  a  tethered  camel,  there  a  little  girl 
carefully  collects  into  a  palm  basket  the  manurial  pro- 
ducts of  the  day  of  cattle-feeding,  to  take  home  with 
her  flock  in  the  evening.  A  slinger  crouches  like  a 


28  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

black  ghoul — for  he  has  drawn  the  head-shawl  over 
his  head — upon  his  rough  clod  hillock,  and  in  the 
fields  men  are  busy  with  hoe  or  glebe-hatchet  and 
creaky  "  shadoofs."  The  land  of  Seneferu  has  no  rest, 
and  since  the  King  of  Truth  and  Goodness  entered 
his  tomb  until  this  day,  men  plough  and  break  the 
glebe  and  lift  the  shadoof  bucket,  and  sling  the  stone, 
and  take  at  morn  the  cattle  to  the  fields,  watch  them 
through  the  day  with  greater  care  than  they  give  to 
their  children,  and  bring  them  back  at  eventide. 

Now,  while  the  hoopoe  calls  "  hut-hut "  from  the 
distance,  and  the  black  and  white  kingfisher — "  sick- 
sak " — poises  over  the  village  pond,  we  pass  the 
remains  of  some  old  offering-stool  or  slab  used  in  a 
temple,  raised  by  the  fourth  dynasty  men,  but  now  cast 
out  by  the  wayside.  Round  the  muddy  pond  we  go, 
wherein  the  ducks  dabble  and  the  brickmaker  dabbles 
too,  treading  the  slime  into  paste,  filled  full  with  the 
bits  of  chopped  straw  that  have  sunk  down  from  farm- 
yard refuse  of  last  year.  This  is  the  village  of  the 
pyramid  we  spoke  of,  and  brickmakers,  having  ex- 
hausted the  fourth-dynasty  supply,  must  tread  their 
own  mud  into  brickage,  and  put  it  in  their  little  square 
wood  moulds  and  leave  it  to  the  sun. 

We  have  now  reached  the  edge  of  the  plain,  yellow 
here  from  the  flower  of  the  "  kabbach "  or  ketlock, 
and  here  is  a  white-domed  shekh's  tomb  beside  a  fine 
old  "  atli,"  or  juniper  tree  :  beneath  it  rest  the  bones 


AT  THE  M£DftM  PYRAMID  29 

of  Shekh  All  Nurr — peace  to  his  ashes.  On  now  over 
the  waste  we  go  southward  towards  the  shining  ter- 
raced pyramid. 

Presently  we  are  aware  that  the  great  brown  grey 
mounds  upon  our  right  and  left  have  been  trenched 
through,  pits  or  wells  are  opened  out  in  the  midst, 
and  what  seemed  just  wind-blown  waves  of  desert  sand, 
show  themselves  to  be  carefully  built  mud-brick 
masses.  We  are  in  the  burying-ground  of  oldest 
Egypt,  and  these  are  the  mastabas  that  extend 
from  here  to  the  foot  of  the  pyramid,  and  on  beyond 
it,  which  day  by  day,  under  the  careful  exploration  of 
Mr.  Flinders  Petrie,  are  yielding  up  their  secrets.  Now 
we  see  a  tiny  tent  and  rough  reed  hut,  such  as  the 
wandering  Bedouin  might  use.  This  is  the  palatial 
accommodation  that  the  brave  explorer  is  contented 
with.  If  you  go  into  that  tiny  tent,  you  will  find  an 
old  packing-case  with  three  rough  shelves  in  it,  a 
couple  of  cups,  a  plate,  a  spoon,  a  paraffin  stove,  a 
box  of  biscuits  and  some  potted-meat  tins  ;  and  oppo- 
site, another  packing-case  to  serve  as  table  and  chair 
in  one.  That  is  Mr.  Petrie's  dining  and  drawing  room. 
If  you  enter  the  little  tomb  close  by,  where  once,  with 
much  lamentation  and  many  cakes  of  offering,  entered 
those  who  mourned  for  Nefer  Mat,  you  will  see  a  rude 
camp  bedstead.  There,  at  the  end  of  long  days  of 
digging,  sleeps  the  explorer,  and  the  stars  can  look  in 
upon  him,  and  the  first  sun  visit  him. 


30  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

I  brought  no  cakes  of  offering  to  the  tomb  ;  half  a 
fowl  and  a  bit  of  bread  and  a  couple  of  oranges  were 
my  supply,  but  I  found  it  all  too  much ;  for  my 
friend  the  explorer  opened  his  tin,  and  set  his  lamp 
a-going,  and  gave  me  of  his  store  a  supper  fit  for 
Seneferu ;  lent  me  his  own  pocket-knife  to  eat  my 
feast,  shared  his  single  teaspoon  with  me,  and  finished 
piling  on  his  desert  courtesy  with  a  bit  of  crystallised 
ginger,  such  as  Seneferu  and  Nefer  Mat  never  knew.  I 
proffered  my  English  bread  in  return ;  he  haughtily 
refused  it.  What  was  English  bread  to  a  man  who 
can  get  the  Arab  bread  thrice  a  week  from  Wasta  ?  I 
suggested  that  fowl  recently  killed  and  cooked  would 
be  a  pleasant  addition  to  his  supper.  He  fiercely 
refused  to  believe  me  :  had  he  not  potted  pilchards 
in  abundance,  and  did  not  Moir  supply  him  with 
English  or  Australian  lambs'  tongues  in  tins,  that  were 
better  than  all  the  fowls  of  the  Nile  valley?  But  I 
anticipate. 

It  was  enough  for  me  to  know  that  that  tiny  tent 
and  hut  of  reeds  and  tomb-chamber  was  the  home  of 
the  "Khawaja,"  and  to  my  question,  "Where  was  he?" 
I  was  told  "  Gedam  foh  fil  Haram,"  which,  being  inter- 
preted, meant,  "  On  there  beyond,  near  the  pyramid." 

I  went  across  the  heaving  billows  of  sand  and  flint, 
and  found  him  taking  some  trigonometrical  measures, 
which  needed  that  he  should  not  be  interrupted  till 
the  sunlight  failed  him,  and  climbing  up  over  the 


debris  at  the  base  of  the  pyramid,  I  wondered  at  its 
mass  and  its  marvellous  colour. 

The  hawks,  beloved  of  Seneferu,  Rahotep,  and 
Nefer  Mat  in  the  days  of  auld  lang  syne,  flew  out  and 
in  to  their  high-built  eyries,  and  clamoured  as  they 
flew.  I  looked  up  the  eastern  face  of  the  masonry, 
and  noted  that,  for  a  third  of  its  height,  it  had  upon 
it  a  rough  facing  of  stone,  then  came  tooled  and 
smoothed  orange-coloured  limestone,  and  then  a  small 
band  of  rough-hewn  stone.  The  meaning  of  this 
rough  masonry,  Mr.  Petrie  showed  me  after,  was  that 
two  outer  skins  of  casing,  now  destroyed,  went  up- 
wards, the  one  to  the  top  of  the  rough  masonry,  the 
other  to  the  top  of  the  second  band.  What  labour 
had  been  lost  here  !  All  that  careful  tooling  of  the 
intermediate  band  of  gloriously  golden  masonry  had 
been  covered  over  by  one  of  those  outer  casings.  All 
honour  to  the  men  for  this  waste  of  time,  who,  pend- 
ing the  putting  on  of  the  skin,  dared  to  face  this  wall 
so  beautifully  with  their  facing  tools. 

At  my  feet,  as  I  stood,  I  noticed  the  solid  platform 
blocks  of  limestone  masonry,  all  with  a  slight  inward 
cant,  whereon  one  of  these  outer  skins  had  been  built. 
Going  a  little  farther  to  the  north  side,  one  could  note 
the  platform  in  situ  wherefrom  had  sprung  the  second 
outer  casing,  and  at  the  opening  of  the  pyramid  vault, 
which  was  discovered  by  Mariette  Bey,  the  great 
trench  his  workmen  made  in  the  debris  beneath  was 


32  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

still  to  be  seen.  One  observed,  as  one  bent  forward 
into  the  opening,  and  placed  one's  eyes  against  the 
lintel  and  gazed  upward,  how,  contrary  to  expectation, 
these  two  outermost  casings  would  run  at  an  angle  of 
75  degrees  clear  to  the  top,  beyond  and  outside  of 
the  present  terrace  of  masonry  above,  and  give  to  the 
six-stepped  pyramid  its  possibility  of  pure  pyramidal 
form. 

I  do  not  think  I  could  ever  have  realised  how  these 
pyramid-builders  built  core  within  core,  and,  filling 
up  the  terrace  angles,  got  complete  pyramid  form, 
had  I  not  stood  upon  the  outer  casings  of  this  pyramid 
of  Seneferu.  I  am  sure  I  could  not  have  got  an  idea  of 
the  actual  mass  of  building  required,  had  I  not 
realised  on  the  spot  that  all  that  vast  mound,  where- 
from  the  three  or  four  central  cores  of  the  pyramid 
that  still  remain  intact  arise,  was  nothing  in  the  world 
but  the  remnants  of  the  two  outer  skins  and  the 
debris  occasioned  by  the  stripping  off  of  the  upper 
portions  of  these  skins,  and  learned  that  it  was  con- 
jectured that  within  the  last  three  generations  no  less 
than  100,000  tons  of  material  had  been  carted  away, 
and  that  still  the  work  of  destruction  and  carting 
away  goes  on.  No  "raphir,"  or  local  guardian,  has 
been  appointed.  Is  £12  a  year  too  large  a  sum  to 
expect  of  the  Museum  authorities  towards  the  care  of 
this  interesting  fourth-dynasty  Necropolis  ?  It  looks 
like  it. 


AT  THE   MEVtfM  PYRAMID  33 

And  now  the  great  sun  was  collecting  its  fire  into 
its  bosom,  and  lighting  up  the  bastion  wall  of  Seneferu 
till  it  burnt  pure  gold.  White  as  milk  is  the  lime- 
stone which  Seneferu's  builders  originally  piled. 
Yellow  as  orange  is  the  limestone  to-day  that  has 
been  visited  by  more  than  5000  years  of  rolling 
suns. 

Looking  upward  to  the  vault  of  heaven,  one  noted 
that  the  deep  orange  accentuated  the  blue  of  the  airy 
pavilion  above,  and  I  thought  of  Faber's  lines,  "  On 
the  Larch  in  Autumn,"  whose  tresses  are  much  in 
colour  as  this  pyramid  wall  is  to-day  : 

There  is  no  tree  in  all  the  forest  thro' 

That  brings  the  sky  so  near  and  makes  it  seem  so  blue. 

At  any  rate,  I  never  saw  Egyptian  sky  so  blue  as 
when  I  looked  at  sunset  time  up  the  golden  wall  of 
Seneferu's  pyramid. 

It  was  plain  that  Mr.  Petrie  had  been  digging  for 
the  peribolos  wall,  and  had  found  trace  of  it  on  all 
four  sides  of  the  pyramid  base.  Going  round  the 
pyramid,  on  the  debris  of  the  outer  casing,  towards 
the  east,  one  turned  one's  back  upon  the  billowy 
purple  desert,  and  faced  as  fine  a  view  as  can  be 
gained  in  Egypt,  a  view  certainly  unequalled  as  far  as 
a  Nile  valley  scene  goes,  for,  though  the  view  from  the 
pyramid  of  Chufu  at  Gizeh  is  wonderful,  one  is 
always  oppressed  by  the  somewhat  keen  sense  of  the 
neighbourhood  of  mighty  companions.  Here  one 

c 


34  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

looked  out  from  the  waist-belt  of  a  solitary  giant 
of  stone,  and  nothing  dwarfed  the  details  of  the 
scene. 

The  green  plain  with  purple  streaks  of  yellow 
stretched  boundlessly  north  and  south,  licked  the 
desert  to  the  west  with  its  green  tongue,  flooded  with 
tender  flood  of  cornland,  a  kind  of  inland  bay  that  the 
great  god  Nile  had  made  to  the  north  beyond  the 
tomb  of  Shekh  Ali  Nurr. 

The  hills  Gebel  es  Sherki,  the  hills  to  the  far  east 
across  the  valley,  were  white  and  grey,  and  seemed 
lower  than  the  hill-plateau  of  Mokattam  and  Turra ; 
the  Nile  was  unseen,  but  belts  of  palm  told  us  where 
he  hid  his  silver  head.  All  along  at  the  foot  of  the 
desert-plateau  whereon  Seneferu  built  his  mighty  tomb, 
ran  the  tiny  strip  of  silver  canal  that  gave  water  to 
the  thirsty  villagers  and  parching  fields.  By  its  banks 
were  going  homeward  at  the  sunset,  flocks  and  herds, 
the  whole  air  was  filled  with  the  sound  of  labourers 
and  laughing  lads  and  lasses  who  were  picking  up 
heart,  now  that  rest  and  food-time  were  so  near  ;  and 
mason  bees,  who  had  plastered  the  whole  side  of  the 
eastern  face  of  the  masonry  above  us,  added  their 
sound  of  pleasant  murmuring. 

The  shadow  of  the  pyramid,  a  cone-pointed  sloping 
tower  of  blackness,  moved  and  stretched  itself  upon 
the  vivid  green.  There  was  no  other  shadow  in  that 
land.  So  full  of  peace  and  rest  was  the  scene  that 


AT  THE  MDM  PYRAMID  35 

the  men  who  had  been  long  dead  came  out  of  their 
tombs  and  mastabas  north  and  east,  and  I  seemed  to 
see  them  passing  up  the  hollow  dromos,  between  the 
white  walls  Mr.  Petrie  has  uncovered,  from  the  green 
plain  towards  the  peribolos  wall,  or  passing  in  from 
the  north  and  south  to  the  side  entrance  of  that 
avenue  he  has  laid  bare,  and  so  up  towards  the  little 
temple  of  offerings  for  the  manes  of  King  Seneferu, 
and  for  the  rest  in  Amenti  of  the  founder  of  the 
fourth  dynasty. 

I  was  very  anxious  to  be  of  their  ghostly  company, 
so  I  went  down  the  shales  of  limestone  debris  to 
where  the  workmen  still  plied  mattock  and  palm- 
basket  among  the  silver  smoke  of  the  rubbish  they 
were  moving.  For  Mr.  Petrie  had  determined  to  dig 
a  way  through  the  rubbish  to  the  eastern  entrance 
gate  of  the  temple,  and  let  as  much  light  within  the 
temple  chamber,  as  should  serve  for  himself  and  his 
photographic  apparatus,  to  put  on  record  the  graffiti 
of  certain  scribes  who  had  passed  into  that  chamber, 
in  the  days  when  Thothmes  III.  and  Amenophis  III. 
and  Seti  I.  were  kings. 

Mr.  Petrie  had  finished  his  labours  for  the  day,  and 
joined  me ;  and  not  without  a  proper  enthusiasm  and 
a  just  pride  did  he  show  me  his  discovery  of  the 
oldest  piece  of  dated  masonry  in  Egypt,  the  most 
complete  archaic  temple  in  the  land  of  Nile. 

For  here,  untouched  by  the  hand  of  the  spoiler, 


36  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

was  a  small  temple  completely  roofed  in,  with  little 
forecourt,  say  roughly  twelve  feet  square,  reaching  to 
the  base  of  the  untouched  outer  casing  of  Seneferu's 
pyramid.  On  either  side  the  doorway  two  milk-white 
monoliths,  chipped  at  the  base,  but  in  situ  and  other- 
wise intact,  raised  their  shining  height.  These  stelse 
stood  about  eight  feet  high,  and  two  and  a  half  by  one 
foot  broad,  and  between  them  lay  a  stone  of  offerings 
on  which  men  had  poured  oil  and  left  the  fruits  of 
the  earth  in  memory  of  their  king,  "  The  Maker  of 
Good,"  who,  ages  after  he  was  laid  iri  his  sarcophagus, 
was  looked  upon  as  God. 

I  passed  from  the  sanctuary  into  the  chamber 
through  the  low  door,  and  can  but  describe  it  as  a 
long  box,  twenty  feet  long  by  about  six  or  eight  feet 
broad,  and  five  feet  high,  somewhat  like  the  four 
lateral  chambers  in  the  inner  court  of  the  granite 
temple  near  the  south-west  side  of  the  sphinx  at  Gizeh. 
The  chamber  was  built  of  large  blocks  of  limestone 
carefully  fitted,  and  showing  in  parts  that  it  was  still 
in  process  of  being  dressed  down,  or  tooled  when  the 
craftsmen  left  it ;  it  sparkled  with  diamonds  of  salt 
that  had  worked  their  way  out  to  the  surface.  Pass- 
ing thence  by  a  low  doorway  at  the  north  end,  one 
found  a  similar  hollow  box  of  limestone,  laid  parallel 
with  the  first  chamber,  and  at  the  farther  or  south 
end,  and  on  the  east  side,  a  passage  leading  eastward 
— this,  in  fact,  the  main  entrance  passage,  long  blocked 


AT  THE  MEDftM  PYRAMID  37 

up,  which  Mr.  Petrie's  workmen  were  still  busied  in 
clearing.  And  here,  opposite  this  passage,  and  in 
the  passage  itself,  was  centred  the  interest  of  the 
find  j  for  about  fourteen  graffiti,  some  in  the  passage, 
some  on  the  western  wall  of  the  entrance  chamber, 
or  so  much  of  it  as  could  be  lighted  from  the  entrance 
passage,  were  seen  as  fresh  as  when  penned.  In  the 
passage  was  one  written  by  a  scribe  in  the  reign  of 
Thothmes  III.,  1600  B.C.  On  the  chamber  wall  were 
others  written  when  Amenophis  III.,  1500  B.C.,  and 
Seti  I.,  1366  B.C.,  were  on  the  throne. 

One  especially,  of  the  latter  was  of  interest,  for 
there  was  a  long  inscription  of  fourteen  or  sixteen 
lines  of  close  hieratics,  whose  date-sign  had  been 
inscribed  in  red,  and  therein  the  word  Seneferu  oc- 
curred in  three  places,  and  so  a  vexed  question  was 
settled.  This  temple  was  reared  before  the  pyramid 
that  in  Seti  I.'s  time,  at  any  rate,  was  looked  upon  as 
the  Pyramid  of  Seneferu.  Seneferu  was  the  royal 
genius  of  this  place  as  long  ago  as  1366  years  B.C. 

Two  little  drawings,  roughly  scrawled,  adorned  the 
wall,  one  of  them  a  disk  of  the  sun — looking,  save 
the  mark,  like  a  watch  face — and  beside  it  a  seated 
Osiris  figure;  the  other  picture  was  an  image  of 
Horus  as  a  hawk,  whose  legs  were  long  enough  to 
have  done  duty  for  a  heron — beneath  it  a  graffito  of 
the  time  of  Amenophis  III. 

It  looked  very  much  as  if  these  scribbling  scribes 


38  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

came,  as  I  had  come,  on  errand  of  curiosity,  and  had 
not  been  able  to  penetrate  to  the  second  chamber,  or 
to  the  sanctuary  between  the  statues.  There,  perhaps, 
darkness  reigned  in  their  time,  there  debris  had  per- 
haps fallen,  and,  luckily  for  our  century  and  our  eyes, 
had  covered  in  the  shrine  where  men  of  Seneferu's 
day  had  worshipped  with  their  faces  toward  the  base 
of  the  sloping  pyramid.  Surely  the  narrow  area  of 
the  inscriptions  in  the  first  chamber  looks,  as  Mr. 
Petrie  suggested,  much  as  if  at  the  doorway  alone 
light  could  penetrate  the  first  temple  chamber,  and 
thither  only  came  the  scrawlers  of  hieratics. 

The  light  was  fading  fast,  but  Mr.  Petrie  showed 
me  how  he  had  first  come  upon  the  outer  wall  of  the 
sanctuary  by  driving  a  trench  through  the  debris  from 
the  south,  and  he  also  pointed  out  how,  after  the 
sanctuary  had  been  almost  cleared,  a  strong  wind 
rose — I  do  not  think  the  gods  were  angry — and  cast 
down  tons  of  the  chip  debris  from  above,  and  gave 
him  all  his  work  to  be  done  again;  but  drawings 
have  now  been  made. 

For  the  sake  of  travellers,  one  could  wish  that  a 
"  raphir,"  or  local  guardian,  could  be  appointed,  at  a 
pound  a  month,  to  see  that  this  archaic  temple  was 
not  injured,  and  that  it  was  kept  clean  and  clear  of 
rubbish ;  yet  I  am  not  sure  but  that,  perhaps,  the 
sealing  up  of  Mr.  Petrie's  important  find,  by  the  chip 
debris  from  above,  will  not  be  the  safest  way  of  pre- 


AT  THE  M&DtM  PYRAMID  39 

serving  that  which  it  has  so  well  preserved  all  down 
the  centuries  until  to-day.  And  here,  above  our 
heads,  as  we  talked,  hung  the  chip-sealing ;  a  single 
gun-shot  fired,  and  all  would  be  reburied  again  ! 

Home  we  went  to  the  tiny  tent  and  the  cup  of  tea 
— never  tea,  though  milk  was  not,  tasted  better — and 
the  stars  were  over  us  as  we  talked  of  the  work  done 
during  the  last  months  in  this  ancient  necropolis. 

To  the  east  of  the  pyramid  Mr.  Petrie  had  investi- 
gated two  mastabas.  The  outer  casing  of  both  had 
been  unburnt  Nile-mud  bricks.  I  measured  one,  and 
found  it  to  be  14  x  7  x  6  inches — large  bricks,  well 
kneaded  with  chopped  straw,  and  tough  even  to-day. 
The  inside  of  one  mastaba  was  completely  filled  with 
chips  from  the  debris  of  the  pyramid  builders;  the 
core  of  the  other  was  filled  with  remnants  of  pottery 
from  the  offerings  that  had  come  to  the  shrine  of  the 
pyramid  temple. 

But  other  discoveries  of  interest  had  been  made  at 
the  former  mastaba,  for  at  the  angles,  Mr.  Petrie  had 
laid  bare  angle-walls  upon  which  the  builders  had 
drawn,  in  black  and  red,  the  lines  of  inclination  or 
angle  at  which  they  intended  the  mastaba  builders 
to  build  their  mastaba's  slope.  I  had  a  good  look 
at  these  angle-walls  early  on  the  following  morning, 
and  was  surprised  at  the  brilliancy  of  the  colouring 
of  the  broad,  red,  vertical  line  upon  the  white-cemented 
angle-wall,  and  noted  how  accurate  these  old  work- 


40  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

men  were  even  in  the  matter  of  line  drawing.  They 
had  with  a  fine,  red,  double  line  first  drawn  their  red 
vertical  eye-guide,  and  had  then  filled  in  the  middle 
space  of  it  so  as  to  preserve,  in  its  absolute  integrity 
and  accuracy  of  outline,  the  standard  upright  for  their 
line  of  sight.  It  was  not  without  interest  to  note  the 
horizontal  cross-lines  which  had  been  drawn  at  inter- 
vals ail  the  way  up  from  the  ground  to  the  top  of  the 
angle-wall,  at  the  distance  of  single  cubit  spaces 
apart,  and  that  underneath,  at  one  point,  for  the 
guidance  of  the  foundation  builders,  had  been  written 
in  red  letters  the  note,  "  Under  is  the  good,  five 
cubits,"  which  meant  that  the  rock-bed  was  five 
cubits  beneath  this  mark  on  the  wall. 

One  sometimes  talks  of  the  want  of  care  in  foun- 
dations, that  the  old  Nile  valley  builders  were  guilty 
of,  but  I  confess  that,  after  seeing  this  note,  and 
observing  the  deep  trench  from  which  the  outer  lining 
mastaba  wall  sprang,  and  after  looking  carefully  at 
the  depth  of  masonry  upon  which  the  columns  of 
Amenophis  rest  in  the  Temple  of  Luxor,  one's  idea 
of  their  want  of  knowledge  of  foundations  has  been 
considerably  altered,  and  when  one  observes  how 
cleverly  the  old  architects  used  their  red  paint  in  the 
"  construction  "  line,  their  black  for  the  "  working " 
line,  so  that  the  eye  might  never  hesitate  or  become 
confused,  one  asks  even  if  our  own  architects  are 
wiser  than  the  men  of  old  ! 


AT  THE   MED&M  PYRAMID  41 

That  evening-talk  in  the  tent  was  full  of  interest ; 
one  learned  much,  but  the  best  thing  I  learned  was 
the  kind  of  friendly  relation  existing  between  Mr. 
Petrie  and  his  workmen.  I  had  seen  them  labouring 
with  their  palm  baskets  and  adze-shaped  hoes  till 
after  sundown.  Mr.  Petrie  had  been  late  in  taking 
observations,  and  so  had  not  given  his  usual  signal  of 
a  whistle  for  the  men  to  cease  work,  but  they  did  not 
cease,  and  I  soon  found  that  there  had  been  esta- 
blished such  relations  between  employed  and  employer 
as  made  the  day's  work  not  slaves'  labour,  but  the 
work  of  men  who  wished  to  serve  their  master  in  love 
to  the  uttermost.  There  was  a  fair  at  some  Fayum 
village  near,  and  some  of  the  men  came  up  to  the 
tent  very  courteously  to  ask  for  their  wages,  and  for 
leave  to  go.  It  was  a  sight  worth  seeing,  the  patient 
courtesy  with  which  they  squatted,  one  hand  on  the 
tent-pole,  and  listened  to  Mr.  Petrie's  recital  of  the 
various  amounts  due  for  the  various  metres'  work  on 
the  different  days.  They  kept  nodding  and  saying 
"  Aiwar  "  as  the  various  details  were  given  ;  they  were 
serving  a  just  man,  and  they  knew  that  each  evening 
their  work  had  been  measured  and  recorded.  Some- 
times an  extra  piastre  or  two  had  been  agreed  upon 
for  this  or  that  extra  work  or  extra  care,  and  the  men 
smiled  and  mentioned  it,  and  took  their  wage,  saying 
at  what  hour  they  intended  to  return,  but  all  with 
such  an  air  of  confidence  and  pleasure  in  their  talk  as 


42  NOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 

made  one  feel  that  the  curse  of  Egypt  had  been  lifted, 
and  that  labour  and  joy  had  supplanted  the  labour  and 
curse  of  the  old  kourbash  days. 

"  Well,  you  see,"  said  my  friend,  "  that  I  first  care- 
fully pick  my  men.  I  then  get  the  fathers  and  the  chil- 
dren to  work  together.  Each  hand  is  soon  found  to 
be  better  fitted  for  one  kind  of  work  than  another,  and 
I  change  the  men's  work  till  I  find  each  man  is  in  the 
right  place,  and  then  the  work  goes  on  smoothly.  I 
have  no  '  reis,'  or  intermediate  man  ;  I  go  round  each 
day  to  see  the  men  at  their  various  posts,  and  instead 
of  massing  them  together  at  one  big  job,  in  which  they 
would  only  get  in  one  another's  way,  I  tell  them  off  to 
the  different  points  of  exploration,  and  agree  to  pay 
by  the  metre,  and  thus  discount  idleness."  I  went 
back  in  thought  to  that  very  different  method  of  exca- 
vation I  had  seen  at  Luxor  and  Karnak,  and  wished 
devoutly  the  Gizeh  Museum  authorities  would  take  a 
leaf  out  of  Mr.  Petrie's  book.  Here,  at  the  Me- 
dum,  men  and  master  were,  it  seemed,  bound  by  a 
common  tie  of  interest,  which  seemed  of  a  really 
personal  character.  There,  at  Luxor  and  Karnak,  a 
great  cursing  -and  swearing  bully  in  the  form  of  a 
"reis,"  armed  with  a  kourbash,  hustled  the  children 
with  their  palm  baskets  of  mould,  from  pit  to  bank, 
lashing  them  mercilessly  at  times,  and  flicking  his 
elephant-hide  whip,  as  it  would  seem  for  pure  cruelty's 
sake,  at  the  thinly  clad  or  half-naked  bodies  of  the 


AT  THE  M&DtlM  PYRAMID  43 

poor  little  girls  and  boys  who  were,  in  the  name  of 
Science  working  like  slaves  through  heat  and  dust,  to 
bring  back  the  colossi  of  Rameses  the  Great,  or  the 
temple  of  his  father  Seti,  from  the  grave  of  centuries. 
It  was  a  sight  to  make  any  Englishman's  heart  boil 
to  see  the  lash,  in  the  hand  of  the  burly  bully  at  the 
pylori  of  Luxor,  curl  with  a  crack  round  the  leg  of  a 
lad  or  naked  ankle  of  a  girl,  with  a  heavy  palm  basket 
on  their  heads,  as  they  toiled  up  the  steep  bank,  and 
bring  the  poor  creatures  to  their  knees ;  but  when  I 
complained  I  was  told"  Ma-alesh"  ("  It  matters  not"); 
"  Mafish  kourbash,  shoggalu  mafish  "  ("  No  kourbash, 
no  work  ").  I  have  seen  the  men  and  boys  who  are 
working  pleasantly  and  cheerfully  for  Mr.  Petrie  at 
Medum,and  I  unhesitatingly  say  that  he  gets  twice  as 
much  of  actual  work  done  in  the  time,  as  the  brute  who 
drives  his  gang  of  slaves  at  Luxor  and  Karnak ;  and  I 
know,  from  seeing  them  labour  at  early  morn  and  to  late 
eventide,  with  what  interest  and  pleasure — I  was  going 
to  say  with  what  pride — they  work  for  "  Khawaja 
Engleese,"  the  English  gentleman.  It  was  refreshing 
to  sit  there  in  the  shadow  of  those  vast  mastaba 
mounds,  at  the  building  of  which  we  had  been 
brought  up  to  believe  the  land  had  groaned,  and 
the  lash  had  been  lifted,  and  the  sweat  of  the  people 
toiling  for  its  princes  had  been  taken  for  nought,  and 
to  see  how  now,  men  laboured  with  the  same  tools, 
dressed  in  the  same  way,  having  much  the  same 


44  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

simple  wants  to  satisfy,  and  the  same  homes  to  come 
from  and  return  to  at  morn  and  eventide — but  a  light 
was  in  their  faces  and  a  smile  upon  their  lips,  for  they 
toiled  for  honest  bread  at  honest  price,  and  their 
master  was  a  friend. 

I  say  this  because  that  evening  I  heard  a  boy's 
voice  and  saw  a  boy's  hand  thrust  through  the  tent, 
and  noticed  Mr.  Petrie  solemnly  cut  a  bit  of  soap  in 
two  and  give  the  lad  half,  saying,  "  I  find  there's 
nothing  like  soap  for  sore  heads."  Presently  another 
voice  piped  in  the  darkness,  and  the  same  knife  now 
dived  into  a  pot  of  ointment,  and  spread  some  care- 
fully on  a  sore  place  near  the  nose  of  the  applicant — 
a  dust  sore,  for  which  this  ointment  was  a  palliative. 

Presently,  with  a  low  salaam,  a  dusky  man,  with  a 
dark  ache  in  his  dusky  stomach,  applied  for  cure. 
The  paraffin  lamp  was  kindled.  A  cup  of  coffee  was 
made,  and  therein  a  spoonful  of  pepper  stirred.  The 
poor  fellow  swallowed  it  with  a  gurgle,  and  turned  to 
go.  "  God  increase  your  goods  exceedingly !  "  ("  Ya 
Kattar  Allah  kherak.  Katall  kherak  ketir  ! ")  was  the 
word  of  thanks ;  and  the  grateful  ones  went  back  to 
their  reed  huts  and  their  burnouses  and  their  sandy 
beds  for  the  night. 

I  did  not  wonder  that  Mr.  Petrie,  the  wise  hakim, 
was  beloved  of  his  workmen.  Fancy  a  poor  sick  or 
wounded  child  coming  to  the  Luxor  bully  with  the 
kourbash,  for  emollient  or  detergent !  What  a  change 


AT  THE  MDM  PYRAMID  45 

had  come  over  the  labourers'  dream  here  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Medum  Pyramid  !  And  what  a  dif- 
ferent estimate  of  the  qualities  and  character  of  the 
Egyptian  Fellah  was  this  that  we  gained  by  converse 
with  the  explorer,  from  the  ordinary  guide-book  idea 
that  prevails  with  Nile  travellers !  A  letter  received 
afterwards  from  Mr.  Petrie  is  so  confirmatory  of  what 
we  saw  and  felt,  that  I  dare  to  print  it.* 

*  "  With  regard  to  the  treatment  of  workers,  you  may  say 
that  I  have  never  found  occasion  to  strike  a  man  or  child 
that  was  in  my  pay,  during  ten  years'  work.  This  is  not  from 
any  sentimental  reason  (for  I  heartily  believe  in  the  kurbash  as 
a  penal  measure),  but  simply  that  no  one  is  worth  employing 
who  needs  punishing.  My  only  penalty  is  inexorable  dismissal, 
without  warning.  Sometimes  I  take  a  fellow  back,  where  it  was 
only  a  squabble  between  workers  ;  but  never  if  asked  to  do  so. 

"  For  three  years  now  I  have  had  no  overseer  or  headman  ; 
there  is  no  one  between  me  and  the  workers ;  and  I  much  prefer 
it.  All  overseers  expect  to  get  a  heavy  proportion  of  the  wages, 
and  do  get  it.  I  believe  that  of  every  £1000  spent  on  works, 
from  ^200  to  ^300  goes  into  the  pockets  of  men  who  have  not 
the  faintest  right  to  it.  When  the  railway  was  lately  made  in  the 
Fayum  the  wages  were  enough,  but  the  exactions  of  the  '  reises ' 
were  such  that  few  men  cared  to  take  the  work  for  what  they 
got.  Hence  it  dragged  on  a  long  time  for  lack  of  enough  labour. 
Probably  the  engineers  had  no  idea  of  the  cause. 

"  My  workmen  always  form  my  natural  guards  and  friends, 
and  I  have  never  known  them  steal  anything.  On  the  contrary, 
they  will  often  dispute  an  account  against  their  own  interest,  and 
if  accidentally  paid  too  much  in  error,  they  will  bring  me  back 
the  money  and  go  over  it.  Even  when  any  visitor  gives  a  boy 


46  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Next  morning  we  were  awake  with  the  lark ;  the 
great  sun  drove  his  fleecy  flocks  from  the  plains  of  the 
Nile  to  the  plains  of  heaven,  and  the  green  carpet  of 
the  valley  was  already  alive  with  the  shouts  "of 
labourers  going  forth  into  the  fields  "  below  us  as  we 
gazed. 

We  paid  a  second  visit  to  the  pyramid  and  the 
archaic  temple,  towards  which  we  saw  the  workmen 
coming  from  the  near  village,  and  streaming  up  the 
slope  of  debris  to  their  toil,  palm-baskets  and  hoe  over 
their  shoulders.  One  man  had  broken  his  basket 
handle,  and  I  noticed  with  interest  his  fellow-labourer 
produce  from  his  bosom  a  bit  of  palm  fibre  in  the 

a  piastre  or  two  for  any  little  service,  they  will  generally  come 
and  tell  me,  as  a  piece  of  news  that  they  like  to  share  with  me. 
I  mention  this  to  show  you  what  terms  I  am  on  with  them.  Yet 
I  get  work  done  cheaper  than  any  one  else  does,  at  two-thirds  of 
the  lowest  rate  of  Government  contract.  So  it  is  not  merely 
extravagant  pay  that  they  look  after.  I  have  an  excellent  opinion 
of  the  Egyptian  when  under  authority ;  but  he  cannot  stand 
temptation,  especially  long-continued ;  hence  it  is  criminally 
wrong  to  throw  temptations  in  their  way,  and  I  am  very  careful 
to  avoid  doing  so. 

"  I  always  pay  the  men  for  whatever  they  find,  just  what  I 
expect  they  would  get  from  a  travelling  dealer.  So  they  have 
no  temptation  to  conceal  anything. 

"  If  you  can  do  anything  toward  abolishing  this  horrible,  effete 
system  of  leaving  all  the  management  in  the  hands  of  corrupt 
and  overbearing  '  reises,'  it  will  be  a  good  work.  I  believe  that 
very  few  natives  are  fit  to  exercise  authority." 


AT  THE  MED&M  PYRAMID  47 

rough,  and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  me  to  write,  sit 
down  and  twist  it  into  rope,  rolling  it  like  tobacco 
twist  between  his  clever  hands  into  four-stranded 
cord. 

Thence  we  went  to  see  the  pits  to  the  north  side  of 
the  mastabas,  where  the  angle- walls  before  described 
had  been  uncovered.  These  had  contained  burials  of 
the  twenty-second  dynasty,  which  varied  in  depth  from 
6  to  30  feet.  It  looked  as  if  whole  families  had 
selected  the  mud  walls  and  inner  lining  of  the  mastaba 
as  a  kind  of  quarry  wherein  they  could  with  ease  ex- 
cavate the  narrow  cells  for  their  long  sleeping.  The 
place  was  many-caverned,  and  looked,  after  Mr. 
Petrie's  work,  like  a  warren  of  some  gigantic  earth- 
burrower.  Here  a  whole  family  had  been  content  to 
burrow  little  cells,  1 2  feet  deep,  side  by  side ;  there, 
and  apparently  in  some  long  anterior  age  that  the  later 
buriers  knew  nothing  of,  men  had  sunk  their  deep 
wells  and  lowered  the  heavy  stones  to  close  the  side 
chamber,  at  the  bottom  of  the  well. 

Although,  as  at  Kom  es  Sultan,  so  here,  it  seemed 
the  deeper  he  dug,  the  older  were  the  burials,  not  one 
of  the  least  remarkable  discoveries  Mr.  Petrie  had 
made  was  this,  that  side  by  side  with  one  another, 
and  apparently  buried  at  the  same  age,  there  appeared 
to  be  two  different  races  of  men,  or  at  any  rate  men 
with  two  different  ideas  about  burial.  In  one  grave 
will  be  found  men  laid  out  full  length;  in  another, 


48  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

with  equal  care,  the  bodies  of  men  have  been  doubled 
up  in  a  crouching  position,  knees  to  chin ;  but  these 
last  have  always  most  carefully  been  laid  upon  their 
left  side,  their  heads  to  the  north  and  their  faces  to 
the  east.  As  to  the  men  laid  out  full  length,  these 
were  placed  sometimes  in  rude  coffins  of  wood,  frag- 
ments of  which  remained ;  the  coffins  had  been 
covered  with  stucco.  One  mummy  had  been  found 
modelled  as  it  were  in  pitch — the  pitch,  that  is,  not 
poured  over  and  left  in  a  formless  mass,  but  carefully 
worked  so  as  to  cover  the  limbs  in  normal  human 
proportion.  No  implement,  so  far  as  I  learnt,  had 
been  discovered  in  any  of  the  graves,  and  such  frag- 
ments of  pottery  as  appeared,  resembled  the  rough 
little  offering-vases  one  finds  in  such  numbers  at  Abu 
Roash.  I  think  the  Abu  Roash  pots  are,  if  anything, 
a  trifle  rougher  in  make,  but  they  are  of  similar  shape 
to  the  tiny  third-  or  fourth-dynasty  vases  discovered 
by  Mr.  Petrie  at  the  Medum. 

I  crossed  to  examine  the  mastabas  and  tombs  to 
the  north-west,  and  stopped,  of  course,  before  the 
door  of  Nefer  Mat's  tomb,  a  tomb  which,  since  the 
explorer  took  up  his  quarters  here,  might  be  spoken 

of  as 

A  tomb  contrived  a  double  debt  to  pay — 
A  bed  by  night,  a  drawing-room  by  day  ; 

for  here  Mr.  Petrie  was  able,  in  the  little  guest- 
chamber  that  Nefer  Mat  planned  for  the  mourning  of 


AT  THE  MDM  PYRAMID  49 

his  friends  and  relatives,  to  finish  the  plans,  and  put 
the  colours  to  the  beautiful  drawings  he  has  made,  of 
the  sculpture  of  the  adjacent  tombs. 

The  first  thing  that  struck  one  was  that  the  mastaba 
Nefer  Mat  had  reared  for  his  memorial,  and  for  the 
well-chamber  wherein  his  body  rested,  had  apparently 
been  finished,  decorated  with  false  doorways,  and 
coated  with  limewash  or  cement,  just  as  the  inner 
wall  of  that  ancient  Egyptian  fortress  near  Abydos 
had  been  coated,  and  that  then  an  outside  or  masking 
wall  had  been  built,  entirely  to  cover  the  original 
mastaba.  The  limestone  tomb-chamber  seemed  to 
have  been  excavated  in  the  original  mastaba,  and  the 
outer  lining  or  casing  may  perhaps  have  entirely 
covered  and  concealed  the  entrance  to  the  tomb- 
chamber  at  some  later  time.  Be  that  as  it  may,  I 
was  face  to  face  with  the  open  tomb-chamber  of  a 
nobleman,  who  was  probably  of  the  household  of  the 
king  who  built  what  Mariette  Bey  called  "  the  most 
carefully  constructed  and  best  built  pyramid  in 
Egypt,"  and  I  naturally  expected  to  find  that  he 
carried  on  the  traditions  of  the  great  Seneferu,  and 
Erpah  Nefer  Mat  did  not  disappoint  one.  For  here 
upon  the  outer  wall,  at  the  left  hand  of  the  doorway, 
the  resolute-looking  man  stood — square-headed,  fea- 
tures delicate,  small  beard,  his  hair  curled  after  the 
manner  of  the  day — unless  it  was  a  short-frizzed  wig  he 
wore ;  and,  not  content  with  the  beautiful  sculpturing 

D 


50  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

in  low  relief,  so  characteristic  of  that  dawn  of  Egyptian 
art  history,  this  man,  who  lived  before  the  Gizeh 
pyramids,  had  determined  to  have  his  image  on  his 
doorway  of  brilliant  mosaic,  and  there  are  the  pit 
marks  in  the  stone  for  the  colour  to  this  day,  some  of 
them  still  holding  the  red  cement  or  enamel  which 
was  used  for  the  decoration  of  his  waist-cloth  3750 
years  B.C. 

I  had,  under  Mr.  Grebaut's  guidance,  seen  on  a  low 
wall  flanking  the  western  side  of  the  inner  part  of 
Amenophis'  hall  of  columns  at  Luxor,  rude  pit 
marks  in  the  stone,  which  had  doubtless  been  filled 
once  with  a  like  enamel,  but  then  there,  the  pit 
marking  was  rougher,  and  this  enamelling  that  I  was 
gazing  at,  was  more  than  2000  years  earlier  in  date. 
But  it  was  not  only  the  manner  of  enamelling  that 
interested  one  in  Nefer  Mat's  tomb  :  the  beauty  of 
the  stone  sculpture  was,  for  clear  cutting,  wonderful. 
Nefer  Mat  had  been  father  of  three  sons :  there  they 
were  upon  the  left-hand  door  soffit — the  eldest  a  man, 
the  youngest  a  child.  He  had  had  a  beloved  wife, 
the  Lady  Atot :  she  is  sculptured  on  the  wall  to  the 
right.  He  had  been  a  great  farmer,  and  each  farm, 
mindful  of  the  dead  master,  had  sent  a  servant  with 
offerings  to  his  tomb;  amongst  them  was  seen  the 
name  of  Mitum,  the  Bull-town,  so  that  one  could  turn 
one's  head  and  gaze  upon  the  very  fields  that  knew 
the  lordship  of  Nefer  Mat  in  the  time  of  the  third  or 


AT  THE  M^DflM  PYRAMID  51 

fourth  dynasty,  for  there,  in  the  plain  below,  was  to  be 
seen  the  brown-mud  cluster  of  huts  upon  its  mound, 
that  still  kept  its  village  name  of  Bull-town,  or 
Medum. 

And  Nefer  Mat  had  been  a  lover  of  sport  in  the 
days  of  long  ago,  for  here,  unhooded,  on  their  several 
perches,  immediately  above  the  doorway,  sat,  as  they 
had  sat  in  stone  miniature  for  more  than  5500  years, 
the  four  favourite  hawks  of  Erpah  Nefer  Mat.*  He 
had  died,  one  might  suppose — or  at  any  rate  had 
prepared  his  tomb  with  thoughts  of  death  before  him 
— while  still  in  the  full  vigour  of  his  active  out-door 
life ;  and  he  had  had  a  wife  who  must  have  shared 
his  love  of  field  sports,  for  on  the  facade  of  the  Lady 
Atot's  tomb,  about  50  feet  to  the  north,  men  are  re- 
presented as  spreading  a  large  net  for  wild  fowl,  while 
three  persons  (perhaps  the  three  sons  who  are  sculp- 
tured on  Nefer  Mat's  tomb)  bring  the  fowl  they  have 
captured  to  the  great  hunter's  dame,  and  the  inscrip- 
tion tells  us  that  "  Princess  Atot  receives  with  plea- 
sure the  game  caught  alive  by  the  chief  noble  Nefer 
Mat." 

I  noted  also  on  the  facade  of  the  tomb  the  "  khent " 

*  Mr.  Harting,  the  secretary  of  the  Linnaean  Society,  the 
author  of  a  book  that  gives  the  bibliography  and  history  of 
Falconry,  has  written  me,  saying  that  if  the  hawks  so  delineated 
are  hunting  hawks,  then  this  inscription  puts  back  the  date  of 
falconry,  and  makes  it  an  old-world  sport  beyond  what  could 
have  been  imagined. 


52  NOTES   FOR   THE  NILE 

or  quadruple  libation-vase  which  was  used  in  Nefer 
Mat's  time  to  prevent  jealousy  among  the  gods,  when 
oil  was  outpoured  to  the  great  god  and  the  local 
triad,  or  to  God  under  four  aspects.  "None  were 
before  or  after  other "  in  their  various  manifestations 
of  deity,  in  the  minds  of  worshippers,  when  men  poured 
libations  in  the  days  of  Atot  and  Nefer  Mat. 

I  did  not  see  the  Lady  Atot's  tomb-chamber ;  the 
Arabs  had  so  ruthlessly  cut  it  about  that  Mr.  Petrie 
had  very  properly  filled  it  with  sand;  but  I  gazed 
reverently  in  the  Gizeh  Museum  at  the  marvellous 
fresco  of  geese  that  Mariette  brought  from  the  interior 
of  Lady  Atot's  tomb-chamber,  with  the  kind  of 
wonder  that  one  gazes  at  the  earliest  picture  of  the 
kind  in  the  world ;  and  as  I  gazed  I  felt  that  Lady 
Atot  must  not  only  have  been  as  great  a  lover  of  the 
fowls  of  the  farm  as  she  was,  with  her  husband,  a  lover 
of  field-sport,  but  that  she  must  have  had  an  eye  for 
natural  history  that  would  not  allow  of  the  drawing 
and  colouring  of  a  single  false  feather,  by  the  artist  she 
employed  for  her  tomb-chamber's  decoration. 

Her  artist,  was  for  all  purposes  of  finish,  a  Japanese. 
I  turned  to  leave  Nefer  Mat's  tomb,  but  not  without 
a  wonder  at  the  way  in  which  the  great  man  had 
determined  to  tell  after-ages  that,  in  the  time  when 
Seneferu  was  king,  men  could  handle  stone  in  a  way 
that  would  severely  tax  all  our  mechanical  appliances 
of  to-day.  He  had  chosen  that  his  tomb-chamber 


AT  THE  MfiDffM  PYRAMID  53 

should  be  roofed  with  large  slabs  of  limestone.  The 
one  exposed  to  view  measured  roughly  20  feet  in 
length,  8  feet  in  breadth,  and  was  3  feet  thick,  and 
weighed  probably  42  tons.  But  what  was  a  weight  of 
42  tons  for  a  roofing-stone  in  the  days  of  the  third 
dynasty  ? 

We  went  up  over  the  back  of  the  mastaba,  and 
visited  two  mastaba  pits  that  Mr.  Petrie  had  uncovered, 
thence  to  a  mastaba  farther  to  the  north,  and  inter- 
mediate between  the  mastaba  of  Nefer  Mat  and 
Ra  Hotep  of  Gizeh  Museum  fame.  Every  one  who 
visited  Bulak,  or  who  now  visits  Gizeh  Museum,  will 
remember  those  two  almost  life-size  seated  statues  of 
limestone,  spoken  of  as  the  oldest  portrait-statues  in 
stone  that  exist  in  Egypt,  or,  for  the  matter  of  that,  in 
the  world. 

Ra  Hotep,  with  his  right  hand  on  his  breast,  his 
left  hand  on  his  knee,  sits  naked,  but  for  his  waist- 
cloth,  bareheaded,  brown  of  skin,  with  a  single  jewel 
round  his  neck,  side  by  side  with  his  wife,  the  royal 
Lady  Nefert.  She,  fair  of  skin  and  delicately  clad  in 
fine  white  linen  garment,  sits  with  folded  arms — upon 
her  head  a  dainty  circlet  of  riband,  a  necklace  of  eight 
bands,  the  lower  one  with  large  pear-shaped  stones, 
her  hair  frizzed  into  a  fine  wig,  and  her  feet  bare. 
No  one  who  has  once  seen  Ra  Hotep  and  his  wife 
Nefert  forgets  the  liquid,  limpid,  life-like  eyes — eyes 
of  quartz  and  rock  crystal  upon  a  background  of 


54  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

silver  plate  to  give  light  ;  and  here  I  stood  at  the  pit 
mouth,  30  feet  in  depth,  down  which  had  been 
lowered  to  their  rest  in  the  brown  mud-brick  mastaba, 
the  bodies  of  Ra  Hotep — son  of  Seneferu,  as  some 
say,  "  commander  of  the  king's  warriors,  chief  of  the 
priests  in  the  temple  city  of  On,  Heliopolis,  the  town 
of  the  god  Ra" — and  his  princess-wife  Nefert,  "the 
beautiful,"  the  king's  granddaughter. 

The  great  stone  that  sealed  the  tomb  had  been  let 
down  into  its  place  by  means  of  ropes,  coiled  eighty 
times  round  its  massy  bulk.  The  rope  had  perished, 
but  the  impression  of  the  twisted  palm-fibre  strands 
was  still  fresh  when  Mr.  Petrie  opened  the  pit.  No 
mummy  of  Ra  Hotep  was  found,  but  men  of 
Mr.  Petrie's  stamp  are  discouraged  by  nothing,  not 
even  when,  as  in  the  case  of  the  neighbouring  mastaba- 
well  of  Ra  Nefer,  he  finds  that  others  have  burglari- 
ously entered  the  tomb  from  below,  and  long  ago 
burrowed  upward  into  the  chamber,  he  with  such 
arduous  work  has  just  worked  his  way  down  to.  But 
it  is  not  only  by  burglars  of  old  time  that  the  explorer 
in  Seneferu's  necropolis  to-day  may  be  baffled,  for 
sometimes  such  an  untoward  event  happens  as 
occurred  in  the  opening  of  a  mastaba  pit,  rather 
farther  to  the  north  than  the  one  of  Ra  Hotep.  There, 
just  as  the  workmen  had  finished  clearing  out  a  tomb- 
well,  and  were  ready  to  descend  to  the  tomb-chamber, 
a  large  black  snake  was  seen  to  glide  from  the  light 


AT  THE  MfiDtlM  PYRAMID  55 

and  disappear  into  the  darkness  ;  and,  of  course,  till 
that  snake  was  scotched  and  killed — a  matter  of  no 
little  difficulty — no  one  would  venture  down  to  prose- 
cute the  work  of  inquiry. 

But  returning  from  the  top  of  the  mastaba,  one 
naturally  wished  to  see  the  tomb-chamber,  or  shrine 
itself,  from  which  in  January  of  1872  Mariette  Bey 
removed  the  two  oldest  portrait  statues  in  the  world 
to  which  a  date  can  be  assigned.  And,  thanks  to 
Mr.  Petrie's  work,  one  could  see  that  a  little  forecourt, 
with  long  low  wing  walls  and  two  white  limestone 
pillars  or  stelae,  stood  before  the  entrance  to  the 
chamber;  passing  through  this  little  forecourt,  and 
entering  the  painted  and  sculptured  room,  one  noted 
at  once  the  comparative  freshness  of  the  colours,  and 
the  hieroglyphs  that  stood  out  in  exquisite  relief :  such 
hieroglyphs,  so  cleanly  carved,  I  have  nowhere  seen  in 
Egypt. 

The  little  room,  or  ante-room,  that  we  entered, 
spread  itself  out  into  two  wings,  right  and  left,  and 
between  these  was  a  recess  or  shrine.  The  figures  in 
the  Gizeh  Museum  originally  stood  in  front  of  this 
recess.  Ra  Hotep  is  sculptured  on  the  left  wall,  with 
his  long  staff  in  hand,  his  three  sons  beside  him. 
His  foot  is  firmly  set  down,  and  one  observed  an 
exquisite  bit  of  sculptor's  accuracy  in  the  way  in 
which  the  fold  or  crinkle  of  the  flesh,  between  the 
instep  and  the  big  toe,  was  expressed. 


56  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

The  Lady  Nefert  is  seen,  long-haired,  with  a  lily  in 
the  fillet,  and  she  holds  one  in  her  hand  also ;  but  I 
forgot  all  about  Ra  Hotep  and  his  Lady  Nefert  in 
the  children  whose  pictures  and  names  were  given  on 
the  jambs  of  the  little  innermost  recess  :  Jeddah, 
Atori,  and  Nefer  Ra,  the  brothers ;  and  Neferab, 
Settet,  and  Mest,  the  sisters. 

How  delightful  it  was  to  think  of  that  happy  family 
life  of  old,  when  the  father  who  called  one  daughter  to 
his  side  always  spoke  of  her  as  "  Sweetheart,"  and 
Sweetheart,  if  she  talked  with  her  sister,  always  named 
her  "  The  Beloved  One." 

In  the  upper  registers  of  the  side  wings  were  seen 
sculptured  the  oryx,  oxen,  ibex  ;  and  in  the  four  lower 
registers  of  the  right-hand  wing,  Ra  Hotep's  seal- 
bearer,  butcher,  cup-bearer,  and  five  servants  bringing 
offerings  were  portrayed.  The  vases  of  honey  were 
covered  with  lids  and  sealed  down  tightly,  and  beauti- 
ful in  shape  were  the  jars  seen  to  be — one  as  delicate 
as  a  Greek  vase,  another  evidently  hewn  out  of  stone. 
I  suppose  they  worked  with  diamond  drills,  and  cut 
the  diorite  with  corundum  into  whatever  shape  it 
pleased  them,  when  Seneferu  was  king,  and  Ra  Hotep 
stood  as  a  prince  among  the  people. 

In  the  opposite  or  left-hand  wing  of  the  chamber, 
representatives  from  twelve  farms,  men  and  women, 
brought  offerings;  and  that  Ra  Hotep  encouraged 
handicrafts,  and  cared  for  the  life  of  the  country 


AT  THE  MEDtM  PYRAMID  $7 

gentleman,  was  evident  from  the  fact  that  here,  in  his 
tomb-chamber,  were  seen  men  working  with  adze  and 
wedges  shaping  out  wood,  boat-builders  were  busy, 
fishermen  fished  with  nets  that  had  floats  and  sinkers, 
and  a  couple  of  men  staggered  under  the  weight  of  a 
fish  just  caught,  as  big  as  a  John  Doree  :  ploughing 
was  going  forward,  herdsmen  drove  the  calf  afield,  and 
a  man  was  seen  coaxing  a  bull  along. 

But  it  was  the  bird-life  of  Ra  Hotep's  time  that 
charmed  me.  The  great  man's  three  hawks  were  there, 
but  these  were  of  small  account  when  compared  with 
the  interest  of  the  wagtails  drawn  to  the  life.  For  the 
wagtail  befriends  every  Nile  traveller  to-day,  lights  on 
the  deck  of  his  dahabieh,  comes  into  his  cabin,  and 
as  they  are  in  colour  and  dress  to-day,  so  I  gather 
from  Ra  Hotep's  tomb  they  were  in  the  days  of 
Seneferu ;  they  have  not  changed  a  single  feather  of 
their  dress,  and  they  are  the  beloved  bird  of  the  family 
of  those  who  dwell  beside  the  Nile  to-day,  as  they  were 
then.  It  is  a  long  time  that  separates  us  from  that 
date.  The  pyramids  of  Gizeh  had  not  been  built 
when  these  wagtails  were  sculptured  and  painted. 
Men  used  stone  knives  and  horn-stone  hatchets  then 
— witness  the  sculptures  on  the  walls  ;  and  yet,  as  the 
little  figure  of  the  fluted  Doric  pillars  tells  me,  there, 
on  the  tomb-chamber  wall,  at  that  time  of  day,  they 
hewed  out  pillars  that  were  the  forefathers  of  the  glory 
of  the  Parthenon,  and  knew  how  to  work  in  high  relief 


58  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

their  mural  sculptures  and  hieroglyphics  in  style, 
scarcely  surpassed  when  Hatshepset  was  queen;  while 
as  to  pigment,  here  was  colour,  if  anywhere,  that  had 
stood  the  test  of  time. 

Yes,  and  it  has  had  to  stand  crueller  tests  of  late 
years.  For  an  English  "khawaja"  opened  this  tomb- 
chamber  for  his  pleasure  some  five  years  ago,  and 
heartlessly  left  it  open.  He  had  his  look,  he  was 
satisfied,  and  cared  not  one  jot  or  tittle  what  should 
happen  to  this,  the  most  remarkable  monument  of  the 
third  or  fourth  dynasty  handicraft,  in  the  necropolis  of 
Medum.  He  did  not  even  let  the  Egyptian  authori- 
ties know  of  his  visit,  or  it  is  possible  that  the  Museum 
directors  would  have  at  once  prevented  harm  by  filling 
the  chamber,  as  Mariette  had  filled  it,  with  the  con- 
serving sand.  He  came,  he  saw,  he  went  away ;  and 
after  him  came  Arabs,  who  saw,  but  did  not  go  away, 
and  the  result  is  that  [the  splendour  of  Ra  Hotep's 
tomb-chamber  is  a  thing  of  the  past ;  and  as  I  left  the 
great  brown  mastaba  heaps,  and,  turning  my  back 
upon  the  glorious  Pyramid  of  Seneferu,  passed  away, 
among  the  green  corn  and  blossoming  beanfields, 
towards  the  Nile,  I  did  not  think  kindly  of  that  English 
"  khawaja,"  and  thanked  Heaven  that  the  exploration 
of  the  necropolis  of  Seneferu  was  in  such  tender,  care- 
ful hands  as  those  of  the  patient  worker,  it  had  been 
my  very  good  luck  to  find  at  work  therein. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HOW    I    SAW   THE   GREAT   PHARAOH    IN    THE   FLESH. 
A  REMINISCENCE  OF  THE  BUlAK  MUSEUM. 

"  COMING  ?  coming  ?  "  shouted  the  blue-bloused,  bare- 
legged donkey-boys.  "  No,"  I  answered,  "  I  am  going. 
Fayn  Khawaja  ?  "— "  Where  to  ?  "  they  shrieked.  "  Lei 
antikat "  ("  To  the  House  of  Antiquities  "),  I  replied. 
All  the  donkeys  near  seemed  to  have  caught  the  last 
word,  and,  moved  from  an  apparent  within,  which  was 
found  to  be  a  most  cruel  without,  twenty  of  them  at 
least,  with  their  humped  saddles  and  gay  saddle-cloths, 
were  in  a  moment  competing  for  the  honour  of  carry- 
ing the  English  stranger  to  the  Bulak  Museum. 

There  was  great  consternation  at  finding  that  the 
English  stranger  talked  broken  Arabic,  still  greater 
when  it  was  found  he  examined  every  donkey  for  the 
"raw,"  and  refused  the  whole  twenty  rather  than  en- 
courage donkey-boy  brutality.  How  I  wish  all  travellers 
in  Egypt  would  do  the  same.  So  off  I  trudged  out  of 
the  Esbekiyeh,  and  so  on  through  the  acacia-shadowed 
avenue,  past  the  residence  of  Stephenson,  the  English 


60  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

general  in  command,  away  towards  that  home  of  mercy 
and  life,  the  German  Deaconesses'  Hospital,  well  pleased 
with  the  quiet  and  absence  of  donkey-boy  scream  and 
wheeze  and  sigh  as  they  cry  "  Hah  !  hah  !  "  with  long- 
drawn  gasps,  behind  their  scampering  donkeys.  De- 
lighting in  the  red  of  the  butterfly-like  poinsettia,  the 
purple  of  the  bougainvillia,  the  dancing,  glancing 
light  and  shadow  of  the  acacias  and  lebbek  trees,  I 
was  just  congratulating  myself  upon  the  quietude,  and 
watching  a  black  Nubian  take  a  whiff  at  the  public 
pipe,  which  was  kept  lit  by  a  bundle  of  rags  that  turned 
out  to  be  a  seller  of  coffee  at  the  corner ;  was  just 
chuckling  at  the  grotesqueness  of  another  man,  who, 
squat  on  the  pavement,  had  had  half  of  his  ugly  head 
shaved  clean,  and  was  looking  at  himself  and  his 
lathery  other  half  of  a  skull  in  a  bit  of  broken  mirror, 
the  street  barber  was  holding  up  to  him,  when  shouts 
of  "  Lei  antikat "  filled  the  air,  and  it  looked  as  if 
every  donkey  in  Cairo  donkeydom  was  rushing  up,  to 
secure  the  silver  coin  (about  $\d.  in  value)  that  would 
be  gained  by  carrying  me,  the  English  stranger,  across 
the  mounds  of  rubbish,  along  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  over  or  along  the  railway  line,  and  on  to  the 
bridge  across  the  canal,  down  by  the  barracks  of  Kasr- 
el-Nil,  and  so,  for  half  a  mile  through  old  Bulak,  to  the 
famous  museum  by  the  riverside.  One  after  another 
the  donkey-boys  lifted  up  their  charges'  tail-harness, 
to  prove  that  their  beasts  were  unwounded,  and 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  61 

you  would  have  laughed  your  heart  out  to  see  how, 
instead  of  the  head,  the  tails  of  these  wonderful  crea- 
tures were  all  that  were  offered  me ;  but  I  chose  one, 
and  crying,  "Lei  antikat,  Muhhammad,"  away  we 
went  scampering  over  the  rubbish  heaps,  while  the 
kites  flew  like  burnished  bronze  between  me  and  the 
sun — away  for  a  mile  and  a  half  towards  the  last  resting- 
place  of  the  mighty  dead,  whose  favourite  symbol  of 
victorious  life,  in  their  worship,  had  been  these  hawks 
of  the  sun,  these  kites  who  circle,  true  conquerors  of 
death,  above  the  carrion  of  the  city  outskirts  of  to-day. 

As  I  passed  over  the  bridge  by  the  barracks,  I  saw 
the  kind  of  sight  that  Moses  doubtless  looked  upon, 
before  he  smote  the  Egyptian  and  buried  him  in  the 
sand.  Here  was  Egypt  in  bondage,  as  Israel  of  old 
had  been.  Three  hundred  ragged  men  in  skull-caps, 
bare  many  of  them  to  the  waist,  were  ranged  in  files, 
as  close  as  could  be,  from  the  canal  bottom  to  the  top 
of  the  steep  banks,  handing  up  great  cakes  of  mud 
and  clay,  and  the  filth  of  a  city  canal-bottom,  and  so 
deepening  the  canal  and  heightening  its  banks — 
dredging  by  hand  with  a  vengeance,  whilst  the  officer 
in  command  shouted  and  yelled,  and  used  his  stick  as 
only  a  Cairene  Jack-in-office  can  do. 

As  we  cantered  through  the  busy  street  of  Bulak 
on  each  side  were  the  little  shops,  while  on  a  wooden 
platform  sat  the  vendor,  his  whole  shop,  front  and 
back,  filled  with  corn  and  fruits  of  Egypt.  Here  were 


62  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  brownish-red  bean,  the  golden-yellow  lentils,  the 
grey  peas,  the  white  barley,  the  gold-red  wheat.  Camels 
laden  with  green  "  bersim,"  like  great  swaying  Jacks- 
in-the-green,  jostled  by;  natives  from  Khordofan  and 
Khartoum,  Darfur  and  Dongola,  mixed  with  the  bean 
and  lentil  and  wheat  sellers  from  the  Delta.  Once 
and  again,  glimpses  were  got  of  the  river  that  gave  their 
harbour  city  of  Cairo  (old  Bulak)  its  birth.  Long  sloping 
yards,  and  gleaming  patches  of  sail,  peeped  up  above 
the  mud  banks  at  the  landings.  The  corn  "runners," 
nearly  naked,  rushed  round  impossible  corners,  pushed 
their  burdens  into  great  hair  sacks,  took  their  beans 
to  give  up  to  the  porter  at  the  harbour-gate  in  token  of 
the  tale  of  sacks  they  had  "  run,"  popped  another  out 
of  their  mouths,  which  had  been  given  them  at  the  gate 
as  a  kind  of  tally,  and  away  to  the  river's  edge  for  a 
new  burden.  Women,  bare  to  the  knee,  holding  their 
veils  across  their  ugly  faces,  came  up  with  their  water- 
jars  or  "  bellasses  "  balanced  gracefully  on  their  heads 
— all  streaming  and  glistening  in  the  sunlight. 

Water-bearers  clicked  their  cups,  or  offered  "the 
gift  of  Allah  "  from  the  porous  kullehs.  Tiny  children, 
with  golden  beads  and  gay  kerchiefs  on  their  heads, 
patted  camel-dung  into  cakes  for  fuel,  and  stuck  them 
up  in  the  sun  upon  the  house  walls  to  dry.  The 
money-changer  chinked  his  coins  and  squinted  at  the 
passers-by,  and  a  bullock-waggon  got  its  solid  wooden 
wheel  into  great  ruts  of  mud  and  water,  blocked  the 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  63 

whole  street,  stopped  all  the  business  ;  but  who  cared 
— it  was  the  will  of  God,  and  the  sun  was  shining  ! 

At  last  Mohamed  gave  his  last  terrible  "  Ha-a-a  "- 
half  wheeze,  half  groan,  half  sigh,  half  laugh — which  is 
the  "  Gee-up  !  get  along  with  you  !  I  am  after  you  ! "  all 
in  one,  of  the  Cairene  donkey-boy;  and  we  halted 
sharp  at  what  might  have  been  the  respectable  stable- 
yard  door  of  a  suburban  house. 

"  El  antikat "  had  been  reached,  and  in  another 
moment  we  were  crossing  the  gravelled  court  towards 
the  entrance  of  the  Bulak  Museum. 

The  building  on  our  right,  with  its  painted  cornice 
of  blue,  green,  or  red  lotus  panels,  and  its  bunga- 
low-looking fa9ade,  was  in  keeping  with  old  Egypt. 
We  were  going  to  see  Pharaoh,  and  doubtless  in  his 
great  time  this  building  of  Bulak  Museum  would  have 
been  thought  worthy  of  a  king. 

On  the  right  side,  through  the  wooden  gate  by 
which  we  had  entered,  there  smiled  on  us  the  thick- 
lipped  animal-looking  pugilist  face  of  King  Usertesen 
I.  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  a  colossus  of  rose-coloured 
granite,  with  the  royal "  pshent,"  or  conical  head-dress 
of  royalty  on  his  head ;  he  who  set  up  the  pillar  of 
the  thirty  years,  the  obelisk  at  Heliopolis;  he  who 
styled  himself  thereon  the  "dispenser  of  life  for 
evermore  "  ;  he  who  had  died  about  2400  B.C. 

We  pass  on,  and  hardly  wait  to  glance  at  the 
four  huge  dark-grey  figures  of  the  lion-headed  goddess 


64  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

of  passion,  Secket  Bast,  holding  on  her  knees  the  key 
of  life  that  is  death.  The  queer  dog-headed  and 
winged  apes  that  once  were  held  sacred  as  objects  of 
worship  at  Abydos,  the  beautiful  face  of  the  Ethiopian 
queen  in  black  basalt,  the  vast  sarcophagi  with  their 
wonderful  carving  in  bas-relief  (the  goddess  of  the 
next  world  holding  the  body  equally  balanced 
between  earth  and  heaven)  are  hurried  by,  and  we 
are  just  about  to  go  up  under  the  porch,  with  its 
serpent-circled  orb  of  the  disk  of  the  sun  blazoned 
above  it,  and  its  two  granite  figures  of  kings  of  the 
thirteenth  dynasty,  flanked  again  by  rose-coloured 
statues  of  older  kings,  who  stand  up  with  their  arms  at 
"  attention,"  and  holding  their  long  sceptres  or  shep- 
herd staves  by  their  sides,  broad-cheeked,  with  caps,  not 
crowns,  upon  their  heads — such  kings  as  Abraham 
knew — when  our  eyes  suddenly  catch  sight  of  the  blue 
Nile,  beneath  the  sycamore  trees  beyond  the  garden 
wall,  and  we  realise  how  with  comparative  ease  the 
mighty  sarcophagi — yea,  and  the  mightier  dead — were 
borne  from  far  Abydos  and  from  Thebes,  and  brought 
to  rest  here  in  the  Bulak  sanctuary. 

But,  stay ;  ere  you  enter  the  shrine  of  antiquities, 
look  back  up  the  steps  of  the  garden-ground,  with  its 
tree-ferns  and  palms  mixing  with  the  masts  of  the 
corn-ships  in  yonder  harbourage. 

There,  on  a  pedestal  of  cement,  shadowed  by  the 
waving  fans  of  the  palm,  stands  a  grey,  well-hewn  plain 


PHARAOH  IN   THE  FLESH  65 

sarcophagus.  Four  limestone  sphinxes  guard  its 
base,  behind  rises  up  and  overlooks  the  square  box- 
looking  tomb  of  slate-grey  marble,  a  colossus  of  grey 
granite  that  bears  (perhaps  usurped  upon  it)  the  name 
of  the  Pharaoh  we  have  come  to  see. 

He  who  rests  within  that  grey  sarcophagus  is 
Mariette  Bey ;  those  sphinxes  from  the  avenue  of 
Serapeum  at  Sakkara  tell  us  as  much.  For  it  was 
Mariette  Bey  who  brought  to  light  their  long-hidden 
sacred  avenue  of  guardian  sleep. 

Yes,  we  are  going  to  see  Pharaoh,  but  I  am  not 
sure  but  that  a  mightier  than  Pharaoh  rests  there. 
Unsealer  of  great  dynasties  that  were,  recoverer  of 
vast  centuries,  well  does  your  body  rest  in  this  ante- 
chamber of  recovered  Egypt.  There  are  those  who 
follow  you  in  your  heroic  work;  there,  behind  the 
lattice,  covered  with  its  trailing  plants,  are  tiny  store- 
rooms, the  shops  of  the  idol  menders  and  the  anti- 
quity-restorers, and  beyond,  in  a  little  study,  where 
you,  Mariette,  worked  of  old,  we  shall  find,  if  we  send 
in  our  name  and  card,  a  welcome,  and  in  a  few 
moments  we  shall  be  talking  with  the  kindest,  gentlest 
guides  to  antiquity  that  the  Bulak  Museum  boasts — 
Emile  Brugsch  Bey,  brother  of  Henry  Brugsch  Bey, 
the  historian.  I  had  come  to  see  Pharaoh,  and 
here  was  the  man  who  had  brought  him  from 
the  grave.  1  would  learn  the  story  from  his  lips. 
His  faithful  helper  and  associate,  the  little  dark- 

£ 


66  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

eyed  man,  who  bowed  me  into  his  presence, 
Ahmad  Effendi  Kamal — he  with  one  another  could  be 
trusted  to  assist  Brugsch  Bey  in  his  dangerous  under- 
taking, for  they  indeed  carried  their  lives  in  their  hands 
when  they  fetched  Pharaoh  from  his  eternal  home. 

Between  the  two  I  should  surely  learn  something 
of  the  facts  of  the  case.  I  did  not  learn  them  at  one 
sitting,  for  Brugsch  Bey  has  not  only  all  the  world 
of  to-day,  but  all  the  worlds  of  the  old  Egyptian 
dynasties  also,  upon  his  shoulders.  But  it  was  my 
good  fortune  to  see  him  several  times,  to  go  round  the 
museum  twice  with  him,  and  Effendi  Kamal  was 
often  in  and  out  of  the  different  rooms,  and  always 
willing  to  answer  questions. 

The  story  of  the  find,  then,  was  as  follows.  For  a 
long  time  past  tourists,  who  returned  from  Thebes  to 
Cairo,  brought  with  them  scarabs,  bits  of  papyrus, 
jewellery,  cartonage,  and  the  like,  which  so  evidently 
belonged  to  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties — 
the  era  of  Rameses  I.,  Seti  I.,  and  Rameses  II. — the 
great  Rameses  of  the  Bondage — that  Mr.  Maspero 
and  Emile  Brugsch  Bey  suspected  there  had  been  a 
great  mummy  find  somewhere  in  the  royal  burial- 
place.  "  The  Tombs  of  the  Kings." 

You  will  ask  what  is  meant  by  the  Tombs  of  the 
Kings.  Briefly  this  : 

At  the  western  side  of  the  great  Theban  plain  rises 
up  a  vast  mass  of  limestone  rock,  broken  into 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  67 

terraces.  The  man  who  has  ever  stood  at  Karnak, 
and  looked  across  the  hill  in  the  direction  of  the 
Colossi  and  the  Ramesseum,  will  remember  how  the 
whole  mountain  mass  seemed  built  by  the  hand  of 
giants  into  these  vast  terraces.  Standing  by  the  side 
of  the  lofty  obelisk,  the  loftiest  in  all  Egypt,  which 
Queen  Hatshepset,  sister  of  Thothmes  II.,  set  up  in 
memory  of  her  father  in  Karnak — (the  throne  or  chair 
of  this  wonderful  queen  was  exhibited  at  the  last  Man- 
chester Exhibition*) — the  traveller  sees,  high  up  on 
one  of  the  terraces,  the  Temple  of  Der-el-Bahari. 
That  was  the  temple  ante-chamber  to  her  tomb ;  it 
was  not  far  from  there  that  the  great  royal  mummy 
find  was  made. 

However  much  the  Theban  kings  might  build 
memorial  temples  in  the  Theban  plain — as,  for  ex- 
ample, did  Seti  I.,  the  father  of  the  great  Rameses, 
when  he  built  the  Temple  of  Kurnah  to  the  memory 
of  his  father  Rameses  I.,  or  Amenoph  III.,  when  he 
raised  the  Amenopheum,  whose  sole  remains  to-day 
are  the  two  great  colossi  at  Thebes,  and  as  also  did 
the  great  Rameses  when,  in  the  mighty  Hall  of 
Columns,  which  he  blazoned  with  his  wars  against 
the  Kheta,  he  set  among  the  calyx-tipped  columns 
and  the  lotus-bud  capitals  the  pillar  of  his  fame, 
and  the  flower  of  his  life's  history ;  or,  lastly,  as  did 

*  It  is  now  in  the  British  Museum. 


68  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Rameses   III.   when   he    designed   the    Temple   of 
Medinet  Habu — these  temples  were  never  tombs. 

It  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  these  great 
kings  took  good  care  not  to  commit  their  bodies  to 
these  memorial  shrines.  After  the  lapse  of  3000 
years  they  were  again  to  reappear  upon  the  earth 
and  re-inhabit  their  bodies.  Those  bodies,  then,  must 
not  only  be  embalmed,  but  must  also  be  most  care- 
fully guarded  from  harm;  therefore  in  some  out-of-the- 
way  place,  if  possible,  must  their  tombs  be. 

Now,  it  chanced  that  the  huge  limestone  cliff  of 
many  terraces  upon  the  western  side  of  the  Theban 
plain  enclosed  two  desolate  valleys.  One  of  these 
opened  on  to  the  plain,  and  here,  in  pits  and  caves 
carefully  hidden  and  protected  by  clever  devices  of 
block-fitting  and  angular  shaft,  the  priests  of  old 
Thebes  should  lie  in  quiet ;  beyond,  high  up,  well 
into  the  heart  of  the  hills,  where  none  but  jackals 
would  roam,  in  a  valley  where  the  sun  beats  merci- 
lessly— where  there  is  no  shade  except  what  the 
chameleon  casts,  where  is  no  vegetation,  and  one 
realises  what  the  breath  of  a  furnace  is — there,  in  the 
hidden  valley  of  silence  and  heat,  and  death,  should 
the  bodies  of  the  Theban  kings  lie  till  the  Resurrec- 
tion. The  Nile  might  overflow,  but  here,  in  the 
valley  of  dry  bones,  in  the  limestone  range,  should 
these  royal  bodies  lie  in  arid  safety.  War  might 
flame  at  the  hundred  gates  of  the  royal  city  below, 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  69 

and  other  conquerors  break  the  peace  of  Thebes,  but 
they  should  not  disturb  the  rest  of  the  Pharaohs. 
Here,  even  if  they  burnt  to  the  ground  the  memorial 
temples  of  Hatshepset  and  Kurnah,  or  shattered  the 
hypostyle  hall  of  the  Ramesseum,  these  conquerors 
should  never  trouble  the  secret  halls  of  the  dead,  high 
up  in  this  burning  valley  of  Biban-el-Muluk,  as  it  is 
called  to-day. 

There,  undisturbed,  the  bodies,  wrapped  in  their 
thousand  wrappings,  encased  in  their  double  coffins, 
should  sleep,  and  the  priests  alone  should  know  the 
secrets  of  their  abode  in  their  caverns  of  eternity. 

It  is  true  that  these  cavern  chambers  in  the  tombs 
of  the  kings  were  carefully  hewn — the  kings  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties  would  at  least  see 
to  this.  Far  in  the  burning  valley  of  royal  sleep  they 
would  each  have  their  tomb-cavern  cut.  From 
Amenoph  III.  to  the  end  of  the  twentieth  dynasty, 
only  the  tomb  of  King  Horus  is  missing. 

Before  they  died,  these  kings  doubtless  clomb  up 
the  steep  cliff  by  Der-el-Bahari,  and  entering  the  vale 
of  Biban-el-Muluk,  watched  the  sculptors  and  the 
decorators  at  their  work — not  hewing  out  or  building 
a  couple  of  rooms  into  a  serdab  or  cupboard-chamber 
for  the  statue  of  the  dead,  as  the  old  kings  of  the  fifth 
to  the  thirteenth  dynasty  did,  not  covering  the  royal 
ceilings  with  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  the  walls  with 
pictures  of  the  everyday  life  of  a  great  sporting  gentle- 


70  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

man  farmer,  as  seen  in  the  tomb  of  Tih  or  at  the 
mastaba  of  King  Unas  at  Sakkara,  or  again  in  the  tombs 
of  Beni  hasan.  No,  but  rather  hewing  a  long  tunnel 
into  the  solid  rock,  with  angles  and  stairways  and 
crooked  passages,  upon  whose  walls  should  be  painted 
the  passage  of  the  soul  through  its  purgatorial  suffer- 
ings to  the  hall  of  blessedness  ;  upon  whose  door- 
ways and  portals  should  be  depicted  the  puff-adders 
spitting  poison  and  flame,  the  guardians  of  the  door  of 
heaven. 

All  these  passages,  with  their  pictures  of  the  soul 
passing  through  torment  to  rest,  ended  in  a  high  rest- 
ing chamber  far  in  the  hollow  womb  of  limestone 
mountain.  There  the  soul  should  be  re-born ;  purified, 
it  should  enter  the  bark  of  the  sun,  so  the  wall 
pictures  would  tell  us  ;  and  there,  waiting  for  its  resur- 
rection at  the  end  of  the  3000  years,  the  body  of  the 
Pharaoh  should  lie  beyond  the  hands  of  man  or  the 
"  unimaginable  touch  of  time." 

But  how  comes  it  about  that  so  many  of  these  tomb- 
dwellings,  whose  mouths  were  carefully  blocked  till 
they  seemed  one  with  the  valley-side  —  to  whose 
mouths  led  such  impossible  little  paths,  over  rough 
plateau  slopes — how  comes  it  that  these,  when  dis- 
covered from  time  to  time,  were  found,  as  far  as 
mummies  went,  empty  ?  For  instance,  Bruce's  tomb 
in  the  Valley  of  the  Kings,  as  it  has  been  called,  for  all 
its  beauty  of  pictures,  its  harpers  playing  on  the  harps, 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  ji 

gave  up  no  body  of  Rameses  III.  Belzoni's  tomb,  as 
it  has  been  re-named,  for  all  its  tableaux  of  the  passage 
of  the  sun  through  the  hours  of  day  and  night,  of  Ra  in 
his  bark  of  mystery  and  his  battle  with  Apepi,  the 
serpent  of  evil,  hidden  beneath  the  waves  ;  for  all  its 
glorious  sculpture,  though  it  yielded  the  magnificent 
white  sarcophagus  now  in  the  Soane  Museum,  yielded 
it  empty  of  the  body  of  the  great  King  Seti  I.,  for 
which  it  had  been  hewn.  The  tomb  of  Rameses  II. 
had  been  examined,  but  it  was  empty.  Archaeologists 
were  puzzled  :  the  bodies  of  these  kings  had  been,  and 
were  not.  It  was  known  from  contemporary  papyri 
that  the  watching  over  the  caverns  of  these  tombs  was 
continuous.  It  was  a  legacy  left  from  one  king  to 
another,  from  one  dynasty  to  another  dynasty  ;  more- 
over, it  was  known  that  at  certain  periods  the  royal 
mummies  were  partially  unwrapped  from  their  band- 
ages to  see  that  all  was  well,  and  wrapped  up  again 
and  restored  to  their  rest. 

A  curious  account  of  a  State  trial  is  in  existence  on 
papyrus,  of  the  fact  that  some  priests  had  in  the  time 
of  Rameses  II.,  the  great  Pharaoh,  been  found  robbing 
the  dead ;  and  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  in  the 
Bulak  Museum,  so  many  hundred  years  after,  a  bit  of 
directest  evidence  against  such  roguery  and  sacrilege 
in  a  beautiful  bit  of  a  mummy  breastplate  and  orna- 
ment, from  which  the  robbers  had  scraped  all  the 
gold  except  in  the  sacred  names  and  symbols,  which 


72  NOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 

proves  conclusively  that  the  robbery  and  sacrilege  had 
been  done  by  the  priests,  who  alone  could  know  what 
sacred  symbols  should  be  untouched,  and  what  secular 
gold  ornaments  might,  without  fear  of  penalties  in  the 
world  to  come,  be  taken. 

Moreover,  it  was  remembered  that  sometimes  in 
the  stormy  day  of  revolution,  or  at  the  coming  of  new 
conquerors  or  new  religions,  the  faithful  servants  of 
the  buried  kings  would  hurry  off  to  the  tombs  in  the 
valley  of  the  Libyan  Hill,  whose  secret  hiding-places 
they  alone  knew,  and  remove  by  night,  and  re-bury  in 
some  less  known,  less  celebrated  tomb,  the  mummies 
of  the  mighty  dead.  The  priests  might  be  slain  with 
the  sword,  and  with  them  might  die  the  secrets  of  the 
whereabouts,  so  that  in  a  very  few  years  the  tombs  of 
the  Theban  monarchs  might,  in  that  perplexing  rocky 
ravine,  be  hidden  from  the  hands  or  memories  of  men. 
Egyptologists  were  always  on  the  look-out  for  the 
bodies  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasty 
kings  and  queens. 

Even  supposing  no  revolution,  no  re-hiding  for 
safety,  research  had  shown  how  costly  the  keeping  up 
of  properly  offered  libations  at  the  royal  tombs  must 
have  been  ;  a  low  exchequer  might  induce  any  of  the 
children  of  the  great  Pharaohs  to  compound  for  the 
sin  of  not  keeping  up  the  funeral  feasts  at  the  various 
rock  chambers,  by  collecting  all  the  dead  into  some 
one  great  mausoleum  in  the  cayerned  hill. 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  73 

It  might  be  that  even  economy  should  have  obliged 
a  poorer  Thebes  to  collect  its  great  sleeping  kings  into 
one  hall  of  rest,  and  one  day  that  hall  of  rest  should 
be  found.  But  Thebes  refused  to  part  with  its  secret ; 
nevertheless,  as  of  old',  Thebes  produced  its  robbers 
of  modern  day. 

Just  beyond  the  Ramesseum,  in  some  of  the  lines  of 
tombs,  four  Arabs  dwelt,  whose  family  was  Abd  er- 
Rasoul;  they  were  guides  and  jackal  hunters.  From 
about  the  year  1871  these  men  were  known  to  bring 
and  offer  to  travellers  and  tourists  at  Thebes  the 
hands,  the  feet,  and  the  ornaments  of  mummies.  They 
dare  not  dispose  of  the  bodies  whole,  for  fear  of  the 
"kourbash";  but  in  their  ignorance  of  hieratics  they 
did  dispose  of  some  very  interesting  fragments  of  the 
ritual  of  the  dead,  some  royal  scarves  of  the  nineteenth 
dynasty.  A  Mr.  Colin  Campbell  brought  to  Cairo  a 
beautiful  royal  ritual  from  Thebes,*  and  the  Bulak 
authorities  heard  of  it:  there  was  evidently  a  good 
deal  of  body-snatching  going  on  up  at  Thebes,  and 
Mr.  Maspero  went  thither.  A  conference  with  Daoud 
Pasha,  the  governor,  ended  in  Maspero's  offering  of  a 
large  reward  for  any  information  that  would  lead  to 


*  In  addition  to  this  book  of  the  dead  for  Pi-net'em,  there 
had  also  appeared  a  papyrus  of  Net'emet,  a  papyrus  for  Queen 
Hent-taiu,  and  an  hieratic  text  on  wood  about  some  Uchabli 
figures  belonging  to  Nessi-chensu. 


74  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  apprehension  of  the  mummy  finders  and  mummy 
sellers. 

Still,  the  donkey-boys  of  Thebes,  if  they  could  get  the 
traveller  into  a  dark  corner,  would  hand  out  from  their 
dirty  shirt-breast  fronts,  scarabs,  and  Osiris  images,  and 
bits  of  mummy  bandage.  Arrests  were  made,  the  basti- 
nado was  applied  ;  but  whenever  a  supposed  culprit  was 
had  up,  the  women  of  Thebes,  who  were  in  the  secret, 
and  knew  how  the  mummy  find  at  Der-el-Bahari  was 
the  gold  mine  of  Thebes,  got  round,  and  mocked  at 
the  men,  and  bade  them  keep  mum,  and  so  keep  the 
mummies  ;  dared  them  to  split,  cursed  them  for  silly 
cowards,  threatened  them  with  death  if  they  divulged; 
and  the  bastinado  was  in  consequence  ineffectual. 

Abder-Rasoul  and  his  brothers  were  getting  desperate. 
They  would  have  sold  Pharaoh  for  a  song ;  and  indeed 
in  1880  he  was  offered  for  sale,  body  and  case,  to  an 
American,  but  refused  by  the  Yankee  as  not  being  the 
genuine  article.  In  1881  grave  suspicion  fell  upon  the 
elder  brother,  Ahmad  Abd  er-Rasoul,  as  being  in  the 
secret.  Mr.  Maspero,  with  consent  of  Governor  Daoud, 
had  him  arrested,  and  he  was  marched  off  to  Keneh, 
and  lay  in  prison  for  two  months.  The  bastinado  and 
the  bribe  Maspero  had  suggested  were  offered  him 
alternately ;  he  was  threatened  with  death ;  but  he  was 
obstinately  silent.  Meanwhile  the  younger  brother, 
Mohammed,  thought  half  a  loaf  better  than  no  bread, 
and  determined,  for  the  sake  of  Maspero's  certain 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  75 

backsheesh,  to  get  rid  of  the  uncomfortable  family 
secret,  and  the  uncertain  chances  of  any  further  loot 
from  Pharaoh's  tomb.  He  made  a  clean  breast  of  the 
fact  of  the  mummy-find,  and  gave  the  depositions  to 
the  Governor. 

A  telegram  reached  Cairo  somewhere  about  July  T, 
1 88 1,  and  within  a  few  hours  my  kind  friend  Emile 
Brugsch  Bey,  sub-curator  of  the  Bulak  Museum,  with 
Tadros  Moutafian  and  Ahmad  Kamal,  were  on  their 
journey  of  500  miles  up  Nile  to  interview  the  now 
interesting  Rasoul  family,  and  to  visit  the  newest  find 
of  Theban  mummies — I  was  going  to  say,  and  to  find 
Pharaoh,  but  this  they  had  not  hoped  for ;  an  im- 
portant find  they  expected  it  to  be,  but  they  had  not 
Seti  I.,  or  Rameses  II.,  or  Rameses  III.,  or  Queen 
Nefertari  in  their  thoughts,  as  they  steamed  up  the 
river  to  Thebes. 

Arrangements  were  made  to  meet  Mohammed  Abd 
er-Rasoul,  the  man  of  greed,  at  a  high  place  in  the 
limestone  plateau  near  the  ruins  of  the  temple  Der  el- 
Bahari.* 

On  July  the  5th,  1881,  Brugsch  Bey  and  his  at- 
tendants climbed  up  the  scorching,  difficult  cliff,  and 
found,  behind  a  huge  mass  of  isolated  rock  looking  as 
if  a  giant  had  flung  it  down  from  the  cliff  above,  a 

*  The  best  distant  view  of  the  tomb  mouth  is  from  the  path 
that  leads  past  Der-el-Bahari  to  Der-el-Medinet,  just  before 
sighting  the  latter. 


76  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

heap  of  stones  ;  apparently  a  heap  at  haphazard,  really 
a  very  cleverly  contrived  bit  of.  human  invention  to 
deceive.  The  spot  was  drear  and  unlikely  beyond 
everything.  "  That's  the  place,"  said  the  sullen,  sharp- 
eyed,  savage-featured  Ahmad  Abd  er-Rasoul;  and  in 
less  time  than  it  takes  to  write  it,  Brugsch  Bey  and 
his  men  were  at  work  removing  the  blocks  of  stone 
and  rubbish  that  filled  a  pit's  mouth. 

The  well,  six  feet  and  a-half  square,  was  found 
to  be  endless — or  it  seemed  so  to  them  in  their 
impatience  to  explore.  A  palm  tree  was  thrown 
across  the  well's  mouth,  a  pulley  and  tackle  rigged 
up,  and  quickly  the  work  went  forward  under  the 
burning  noon. 

At  length  the  bottom,  40  feet  down,  was  reached  ; 
all  the  while  Brugsch  Bey  and  his  assistant  Ahmad 
were  really  in  danger,  for  the  fanatical  robbers  round 
them  knew  that  the  Bey  was  in  reality  going  to  be 
their  ruin ;  but  his  rifle  was  slung  at  his  shoulder,  and 
so  the  work  went  on. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  they  found  an  opening, 
running  westward  about  24  feet  into  the  rock ;  on 
the  right  and  left  hand  of  the  wall  were  curious 
hieratic  inscriptions,  possibly  put  there  by  the  priests 
on  the  last  date  of  their  visit  to  see  if  Pharaoh  was 
right.  These  have  been  photographed  by  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  are  now  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Maspero. 

At  the  end  of  the  24  feet  the  passage  turned  sharply 


PHARAOH  IN   THE  FLESH  77 

to  the  right,  and  went  northward.  The  hearts  of  the 
explorers  beat  fast,  for  here  they  found  a  royal  funeral 
canopy  in  a  heap  on  the  ground,  used  perhaps  last 
when  the  coffin  of  one  of  the  dead  was  floated  down 
to  Thebes  for  burial,  1400  years  before  Christ.*  Trin- 
kets, alabaster  boxes,  canopic  vases,  bits  of  papyrus, 
mummy  cloth,  and  broken  coffins  strewed  the  way, 
and  a  cluster  of  coffins  nearly  blocked  it.  The  ex- 
plorers were  fairly  staggered  ;  thence  they  crept  for  a 
space,  for  the  passage-way  got  very  low,  and  they 
found  themselves  at  about  30  yards  from  the  corner, 
at  the  head  of  a  rough-hewn  stair  or  descent. 

On  they  went.  Boxes  were  seen  piled  by  the  walls, 
filled,  as  they  afterwards  found,  with  the  little  statuettes 
of  Osiris — the  Ushabti  figures — libation  jars,  blue 
enamelled  drinking  cups  for  the  dead,  and  canopic 
vases.  On  rushed  Brugsch  Bey,  and  at  about  130  feet 
from  the  opening  to  the  well  shaft  he  stood  at  the 
entrance  of  a  great  mortuary  chamber,  13  feet  by 
23  feet  in  floor  space,  and  about  6  feet  high.  Their 
torch  showed  that  the  whole  room  was  packed  roof 
high  with  royal  coffins  ;  and  I  who  have  seen  the  gold 
and  glitter  and  blue  on  Queen  Nefertari's  beautiful 
coffin,  and  the  faces  and  the  gilded  heads  and  crooks 

*  This  was  the  magnificent  funeral-tent  of  Princess  Isi-em- 
Kheb,  or  more  correctly,  Uast-em-Khebit.  A  model  of  it  to 
scale  is  in  the  Bulak  Museum  pending  the  repair  of  original. 


78  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  the  elaborate  paintings  and  varnish  of  these 
wonderful  double  coffin  cases,  with  their  curious  human 
faces  peering  up  out  of  the  rich  inlay,  as  now  exhi- 
bited in  the  Bulak  Museum,  of  which  Queen  Ramaka 
and  Uast-em-Khebit's  coffins  are  good  examples,  can 
well  understand  that  when  Brugsch  Bey's  torch  filled 
the  dark  with  the  reflection  from  eyes  and  hands  of 
the  illustrious  dead,  as  depicted  on  their  coffin  lids,  he 
felt  so  dazed  that  he  went  straight  out  of  the  tomb 
into  the  open  air  of  the  dying  day,  with  the  sort 
of  feeling  that  on  him  hung  a  secret  which,  unless  he 
lived  till  the  morrow,  might  perish  and  leave  the 
whole  world  the  poorer.  He  feared  to  faint  lest  the 
secret  should  be  unrevealed. 

Here  was  a  find  of  forty  royal  mummies  at  once ! 
The  chamber  was  the  mortuary  chamber  of  the  Her- 
Hor  family  ;  Her-Hor  was  the  founder  of  the  priest- 
king  dynasty,  known  as  the  twenty-first  dynasty,  that 
reigned  in  Thebes  and  Tanis  between  1100  and 
1000  B.C.  ;  of  this  family  alone,  the  bodies  of  two 
queens,  two  princesses,  a  scribe,  and  other  royal  and 
priestly  personages,  were  discovered.  They  had  been 
buried  with  all  the  sumptuous  appendages  of  funeral 
repast  and  sepulchral  toilet. 

I  saw  in  the  Bulak  Museum  the  wigs  in  the  wig 
boxes,  curled  and  frizzled,  which  one  Queen  Uast-em- 
Khebit  hoped  to  wear  at  the  Resurrection  morn.  Legs 
or  shoulders  of  mutton,  and  chickens,  mummified,  for 


PHARAOH  IN   THE  FLESH  79 

the  food  of  the  soul  in  the  next  world ;  offerings  of 
fruit,  flowers,  and  garlands  of  acacia ;  cups  of  blue 
enamel,  glass  ointment  bottles,  and  the  like — these 
were  all  found  with  the  mighty  dead  in  the  Der-el- 
Bahari  cavern  chambers,  up  on  the  lonely  Libyan  hills. 

As  I  write,  there  rises  up  before  me  a  vast  outer 
coffin  of  cartonage,  in  shape  of  a  queen  in  full  attire, 
wearing  a  crown  and  the  double  plume ;  her  arms  are 
crossed  upon  her  breast ;  in  each  giantess  hand  she 
holds  the  key  of  life ;  and  the  blue  enamel  in  the 
corslet  scales  of  her  upper  cloak  still  shines  clear. 

This  vast  giantess  has  been  made  out  of  thousands 
of  yards  of  finest  linen,  glued  together,  fold  on  fold,  to 
a  thickness  of  two  inches  ;  it  stands  up  like  one  of  the 
Osiride  pillars  of  the  Medinet  Habu  Temple,  and  is 
ten  feet  high  if  it  is  an  inch. 

What  is  this  giantess  ?  She  is  a  hollow  dummy ; 
she  is  simply  the  outer  case  of  the  beautiful  coffin, 
with  its  gold  and  blue,  and  the  golden  shining  face 
upon  its  cover,  of  Queen  Nefertari,  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty ;  and  this  was  found  in  the  passage  of  the 
Der-el-Bahari,  one  of  the  forty  royal  mummy-cases  of 
the  great  discovery. 

As  I  looked  up  at  the  giantess  I  did  not  wonder 
how  it  took  sixteen  men  to  move  her  and  her  com- 
panion giantess  from  the  mountain  vault. 

The  find  in  the  actual  mortuary  chamber  of  Her- 
Hor  was  not  as  interesting  as  the  find  in  the  passage 


So  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

that  led  to  it.  It  was  in  this  passage  that  the 
mummies  of  the  earlier  dynasties,  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth,  and  of  Seti  and  Rameses,  were  found,  and 
this  alone  is  some  evidence  that  the  bodies  of  the  great 
dead  had  been  removed  hither  for  safety,  or  to  save 
expense,  at  some  later  date,  from  their  original  tombs. 

The  principal  personages  found  among  the  forty 
were  a  king  and  queen  perhaps,  of  the  seventeenth 
dynasty,  the  Hyksos  time,  2233  B-c-  to  1733;  four 
kings  and  three  queens  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  of 
Thebes,  1700  B.C.  to  1433;  the  three  successive  kings 
of  the  nineteenth  dynasty,  1400—1300  B.C. — namely, 
the  great  Pharaoh  of  the  Bondage,  Rameses  II.,  his 
father,  Seti  I.,  and  his  grandfather  Rameses  I.  One 
body  of  a  king  of  the  twentieth  dynasty  was  found. 
But,  as  before  stated,  in  the  Her-Hor  chamber  were 
discovered  two  queens,  two  princesses,  a  scribe,  and 
other  notable  personages  of  the  twenty-first  priest- 
king  dynasty  that  reigned  between  uoo  and  1000 
B.C.  As  Brugsch  Bey  stood  in  that  dark  sepulchral 
cavern-chamber  and  passage,  he  stood  with  the  illus- 
trious dead  of  seven  centuries,  none  of  whom  were 
living  on  this  earth  at  a  later  date  than  1000  B.C.,  some 
of  whom  had  fallen  asleep  and  were  embalmed  as 
much  as  1700  years  before  Christ. 

It  was  evident  from  the  flowers  and  wreaths  that 
strewed  the  passage,  that  Mr.  Maspero's  backsheesh 
had  been  only  just  in  time.  Close  to  his  brother, 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  Si 

Thothmes  II.,  in  the  passage,  lay  the  sarcophagus  or 
coffin  of  the  great  Napoleon  of  old  Egypt,  the 
warrior  Thothmes  III.,  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  great 
in  name  and  deeds  of  war,  but  little  in  stature,  for  his 
mummy  only  measures  five  feet  two  inches.  There 
in  his  coffin  lay  the  conqueror  of  Syria,  Cyprus,  and 
Ethiopia,  and  probably  had  lain  since  1600  years  B.C. 
in  an  undisturbed  shroud.  But  Abd  er-Rasoul  had 
been  at  work ;  the  mummy  was  exposed  to  view  ;  the 
bandages,  with  the  litanies  of  the  sun  written  upon 
them,  had  been  torn  and  hacked  about  on  the  left 
breast ;  and  the  larkspur  and  acacia  and  lotuses,  with 
the  dried  and  mummified  wasp  which  had  crept  in 
just  as  the  embalmers  had  finished  their  work  and 
laid  their  garlands  on  the  dead,  and  that  had  lain 
there  for  some  3500  years,  had  been  ruthlessly  crushed 
by  the  hands  of  the  robbers. 

The  next  question  was,  How  were  these  great  dead 
to  be  removed  to  their  final  resting-place,  the  Bulak 
Museum  ?  Steamers  had  been  sent  for  to  come  up 
to  Luxor.  The  bodies  and  coffin-cases  must  be 
lifted  up  the  shaft,  transported  down  the  difficult 
cliff-side  to  the  Theban  plain ;  but  the  Nile  was  out  in 
mid-plain,  so  they  must  be  ferried  across  that,  and 
then  again  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  men  to  the  Luxor 
river-side.  All  this  Brugsch  Bey  saw  in  a  moment : 
off  to  Luxor  he  and  Kamal  went,  hired  300  Arabs  in 
the  night,  and  by  earliest  dawn  were  busy  in  the 

F 


82  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

removal  and  careful  packing  of  the  mummy-cases  in 
matting  and  sailcloth. 

"Set  a  thief  to  catch  a  thief"  was  Brugsch  Bey's 
idea ;  and  as  he  stood  on  guard  at  the  pit's  mouth  he 
told  off  squads  of  Arabs  to  carry  each  mummy,  with 
another  squad  to  keep  guard  upon  the  robber  carriers. 

Night  and  day  the  work  went  on  :  in  forty-eight 
hours  the  coffins  had  been  hoisted  to  the  pit's  mouth ; 
and  after  six  days'  hard  labour  under  a  July  sun,  the 
whole  freight  of  sailcloth-sewn  cases  was  at  the  Nile 
bank.  For  three  days  and  three  nights  brave  Brugsch 
Bey,  Kamal,  Moutafian,  and  a  few  trustworthy  Arabs, 
one  of  whom  might  be  seen  any  day  in  the  Biilak 
Museum  as  a  doorkeeper,  kept  watch  over  the  find, 
amid  as  fanatical  and  frantically  angry  a  set  of  ruffians 
and  body-snatchers  as  ever  Thebes  and  Luxor  had 
produced. 

It  must  have  been  a  stirring  sight  as  Brugsch  Bey 
stood  at  the  shaft-mouth,  and  watched  the  squads 
carrying  their  royal  burdens  across  that  vast  Theban 
plain.  He  thus  described  it  to  Mr.  Wilson : 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  scenes  I  witnessed,  when, 
standing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Der-el-Bahari  shaft,  I 
watched  the  strange  train  of  helpers,  while  they  carried 
across  that  historical  plain  the  bodies  of  the  very  kings 
who  had  constructed  the  very  temples  still  standing, 
and  of  the  very  priests  who  had  officiated  in  them : 
the  temple  of  Hatasou  nearest ;  away  across  from  it, 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  83 

Kurnah  ;  further  to  the  right  the  Ramesseum,  where  the 
great  granite  monolith  lies  face  to  the  ground  ;  further 
south,  Medtnet  Habu;  midway  between,  Der-el- 
Medinet ;  and  then  the  twin  colossi,  the  vocal 
Memnon,  and  his  companion ;  then  beyond  all, 
more  view  of  the  plain ;  then  the  blue  of  the  Nile 
and  the  Arabian  hills  far  to  the  east ;  while  slowly 
moving  down  the  cliffs  and  across  the  plain,  or  in  the 
boats  crossing  the  Nile  flood,  were  the  sullen  labourers 
carrying  their  ancient  burdens.* 

"  As  the  Red  Sea  opened  and  allowed  Israel  to  pass, 
so  opened  the  silence  of  the  Theban  plain,  and  allowed 
the  royal  funeral  procession  to  pass,  and  then — all  was 
hushed  again.  Go  up  to  Der-el-Bahari,  and  with  a  little 
imagination  you  will  see  it  all  spread  out  before  you." 

Emile  Brugsch  Bey  is  right. 

But  the  steamers  came  at  last,  and  the  mummies 
were  packed  aboard  ;  and  down  the  Nile,  with  the 
curses  of  Luxor  upon  their  heads,  and  the  hopes  of 
all  the  antiquaries  who  knew  of  the  find,  as  rich  bless- 
ings upon  their  gallant  undertaking,  the  Bulak  party, 
with  their  convoy  of  ancient  kings  went. 

The  delay  of  those  three  days  at  Luxor  was  fatal  to 
their  peace.  The  news  that  Pharaoh  was  coming  down 

*  A  similar  scene  was  witnessed  last  year,  when,  in  February 
1891,  163  bodies  of  the  priests  and  priestesses  of  Amen  were 
borne  from  the  mummy-pit  below  the  temple  of  Hatshepset  to 
the  river-banks  at  Luxor  under  the  care  of  M.  Grebaut. 


84  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Nile  had  got  on  ahead,  and  Mr.  Brugsch  Bey  told  me 
that  one  of  the  most  striking  things  in  the  whole 
journey,  to  his  mind,  was  the  way  in  which  there 
arose  from  all  the  land  of  Egypt  "  an  exceeding  bitter 
cry,"  and  women  wailing  and  tearing  their  hair,  men 
casting  dust  above  their  heads,  came  crowding  from 
the  villages  to  the  banks,  to  make  lamentation  for 
Pharaoh. 

Yes,  the  whole  heart  of  Egypt  and  the  old  love  for 
the  mighty  kings  of  the  splendid  days  of  old,  was 
deeply  moved,  and,  as  in  the  days  more  than  3000 
years  ago,  with  wailing  and  great  weeping,  the  funeral 
barge  had  carried  the  dead  kings  up  Nile  to  their 
sleep  among  the  Theban  hills ;  so  to-day,  with  wail- 
ing and  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  and  all  the 
signs  of  a  national  lamentation,  did  the  bodies  of  the 
mighty  Pharaohs  sail  swiftly  down  through  a  land  of 
mourning  and  sorrow,  from  their  long  repose  in  the 
Theban  valley  of  the  dead,  to  their  final  rest  at  Cairo 
beside  the  shining  Nile. 

I  had  read  in  the  Academy  of  July  3rd,  1886,  the 
very  startling  and  accurate  account  of  the  unwrapping 
of  the  mummies  of  Rameses  II.  and  Rameses  III. 
which  took  place  at  the  Bulak  Museum,  June  ist, 
1886.  There,  in  the  presence  of  His  Highness 
Tewfik  Pasha,  Khedive  of  Egypt,  and  their  excel- 
lencies Moucktar  Pasha  Ghazi,  High  Commissioner 
of  the  Sultan,  Sir  Drummond  Wolff,  Her  Majesty's 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  85 

Consul,  and  other  great  persons,  M.  Gastin  Maspero, 
the  director  of  the  antiquities  of  Egypt,  and  his  sub- 
ordinates, Messrs.  Brugsch  Bey  and  Bouriant,  unrolled 
at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  royal  mummies 
brought  from  Der-el-Bahari,  and  marked  in  the  cata- 
logue Nos.  5229  and  5233. 

There  was  more  of  interest  than  at  first  sight  at- 
tached to  the  unwrapping  of  the  royal  mummy  No. 
5233,  for  though  the  coffin  had  been  found  in  close 
proximity  to,  and  company  with,  the  coffins  of  Seti  I. 
and  Rameses  I.,  and  though  the  coffin-lid  bore  the 
nomen  and  prenomen  of  the  illustrious  Sesostris,  it 
had  been  suggested  by  some  Egyptologists  that 
Rameses  XII.,  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  a  man  of 
no  great  noteworthiness,  bore  the  similar  divine  name 
or  cartouche  as  the  great  Rameses  the  Second,  of  the 
nineteenth  dynasty.  This  coffin  might  contain  the 
lesser  notable's  body,  after  all.  The  savants  further 
pointed  out  that  the  coffin-case  was  of  the  Osirian 
type  of  the  twentieth  or  twenty-first  dynasty  ;  so  that, 
as  the  royal  assemblage  gathered  round  coffin  No. 
5233  on  the  ist  of  July  1886,  though  Maspero  was 
fully  persuaded  that  the  great  Pharaoh's  body  lay 
before  them,  enveloped  in  its  pink-coloured  and  yellow 
cerements,  there  was  just  enough  element  of  doubt 
about  it,  to  render  his  task  intensely  interesting  as  a 
work  of  identification,  apart  from  the  fact  of  the  un- 
veiling of  a  royal  monarch. 


86  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

The  proccs  -verbal  of  the  dates  on  the  coffin-lid 
pointed  to  the  mummy  being  the  mummy  of  the 
great  king.  It  had  been  written  in  black  ink  on  the 
sycamore  coffin-case,  and  gave  the  years  six  and  six- 
teen of  the  royal  or  high  priest  Her-Hor  Siamun,  and 
the  tenth  year  of  the  royal  or  high  priest  Pinotmou 
I. ;  another  date,  of  the  sixteenth  year  of  the  royal 
priest  Pinotmou  I.,  was  traced  on  the  first  cerecloth  or 
wrapping,  just  at  the  breast.  The  Khedive's  attention 
was  called  to  the  inscription  ;  he  nodded  assent,  and 
the  unwrapping  went  forward.  Beneath  the  first 
envelope  was  discovered  a  band  of  cloth,  wrapped 
round  and  round  the  body,  then  a  second  envelope 
or  shroud,  sewn  and  kept  in  its  place  by  narrow  bands 
from  space  to  space ;  next  came  two  layers  of  small 
bandages  and  then  a  piece  of  fine  linen,  stretching 
from  head  to  foot  •  on  this  was  painted,  in  red  and 
black,  a  representation  of  the  goddess  of  creation  out 
of  nothing,  Nouit  or  Neith,  as  prescribed  by  the  ritual 
of  the  dead.  The  goddess  in  profile  unmistakably 
resembled  the  delicate  features  of  Seti  I.  the  father 
of  Rameses  II.,  as  made  known  by  the  bas-reliefs  of 
Thebes  and  Abydos.  This  was  proof,  not  positive,  but 
looking  very  much  as  if  the  great  son  of  Seti  I.  lay 
within.  A  band  of  brand-new  material  had  been  placed 
beneath  this  amulet  of  the  goddess  Nouit;  then 
came  a  kind  of  quilt,  of  pieces  of  linen  folded  in  squares 
and  stuck  together  by  the  bituminous  preparation  the 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  87 

embalmers  had  used.  There  was  considerable  excite- 
ment amongst  the  bystanders.  This  last  covering  was 
removed,  and  lo  !  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
from  the  commencement  of  the  unwrapping,  appeared 
from  beneath  its  many  cerements  the  great  Sesostris 
himself,  who  had  been  embalmed  with  such  care,  and 
wrapped  up  so  laboriously,  3186  years  ago. 

As  we  passed  up  and  into  the  vestibule  of  the 
Bulak  Museum,  Arab  watchmen  grinned  and  said: 
"  Ramses  Kebeer  Khawaja  ?  "  ("  Do  you  want  to  see 
the  great  Rameses,  Sir  ?  ")  "  Ramses  Deux  henak  " 
("This  is  the  way  to  the  second  Rameses"),  saidanother 
Arab  in  broken  Arabic  ;  and  I  followed  as  in  a  dream. 

I  entered  the  grand  vestibule,  but  looked  not  on 
my  left,  neither  at  the  rose-coloured  granite  statue 
of  Sebak  em  Saf,  king  of  the  thirteenth  dynasty,  nor 
on  the  admirably  cast  lion  of  bronze  which  served 
King  Apries  as  one  of  the  stair  ornaments  of  his 
throne,  in  the  twenty-sixth  dynasty.  I  looked  not  on 
the  right,  to  the  serpentine  statue,  gleaming  as  though 
it  were  bronze,  of  the  human-breasted  hippopotamus 
in  form  of  a  goddess  Thoueris,  who,  it  was  believed, 
would  superintend  the  bringing  of  life  again  into  the 
bodies  of  the  dead,  when  they  rose  from  their  mummy 
shrouds.  I  gazed  not  up  at  the  subtle  and  refined 
face  in  black  basalt,  half  proud,  half  cruel,  of  young 
Meneptah,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  wearing  the 
double  crown,  and  the  limestone  portrait-bust  of 


88  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

broad-browed  and  beautiful  Queen  Taia,  the  wife  of 
Amenophis  III.,  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  close  by. 
I  regarded  not  the  fat,  pulpy,  animal-looking  face  of 
Khai,  who  crouched,  in  two  squatting  statues,  chin  on 
knee,  as  large  as  life,  on  either  side  the  doorway  of  the 
grand  vestibule — not  even  though  I  knew  that  this 
same  Khai  was  guardian  of  the  treasures  in  the 
mortuary  chapel  of  Rameses  II.,  the  great  Pharaoh  I 
was  soon  to  stand  before. 

So,  with  heart  beating  fast,  into  the  grand  vestibule 
I  went.  A  beautiful  statue  of  alabaster,  lightly  draped 
and  life-size,  through  which  the  sunlight  fairly  shone, 
of  Queen  Ameneritis,  a  sister  of  Sabaco,  and  wife  of 
Piankhi,  of  the  twenty-fifth  dynasty,  with  left  hand 
clasping  to  her  breast  a  lotus-flower,  her  right  hand 
hanging  at  her  side  and  holding  a  key,  would  have  at 
any  other  time  detained  me.  On  I  went.  Upon  my 
left  stood  the  famous  wooden  statue  of  the  Shekh  el 
Beled,  naked  to  the  waist,  and  bare-legged,  with  his 
lustrous  quartz  eyes  glittering  from  his  broad,  good- 
tempered  face  of  shining  sycamore,  holding  a  long 
wand-like  staff  in  his  hand,  knobby  as  the  day  it  was 
cut,  put  there  in  the  time  of  the  pyramids,  3600  B.C. 

No ;  I  could  not  look  at  him  now — I  was  going 
to  see  Pharaoh.  Right  in  front  of  me  sat,  in  his 
marvellous,  masterful  repose,  the  heroic  statue  of 
Chephren,  the  founder  of  the  second  pyramid  that  bears 
his  name;  there,  with  his  right  hand  clenched  upon 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  89 

his  knee,  and  holding  the  little  scroll  that  proves  him 
scholar  and  scribe,  bare  to  the  waist  and  bare  of  leg, 
wearing  his  ample  cap  or  wig,  with  side  flaps  de- 
pendent over  his  brawny  shoulders — there  sat  the 
man  as  he  looked  in  pride  and  power,  upon  the 
people  of  his  day. 

There,  on  his  throne,  or  throne-chair  of  state,  with 
the  "  psam,"  or  symbol  of  sovereignty  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt,  the  intertwined  lotus  flower  and  papy- 
rus rush,  sculptured  in  high  relief  upon  the  sides  of 
the  chair,  with  the  hawk,  or  holy  bird  of  Horus, 
perched  behind  him,  stretching  out  its  wings  about 
his  head  in  token  of  divine  love  and  protection, 
Chephren  seemed  to  command  me  to  stop  and  gaze 
upon  him.  "  If  you  will  not  gaze  on  me,  who  gazed 
upon  the  builders  of  the  pyramids,  at  least,"  the  great 
statue  seemed  to  say,  with  a  kind  of  scornful  smile 
upon  his  face  of  calm  content,  "  gaze  upon  the  rock 
out  of  which  I  have  been  hewn.  Behold  this  diorite 
grey  and  green.  Have  you  any  men  alive  on  earth 
now,  or  any  tools  with  stubborn  enough  a  temper  to 
carve  and  model  muscle  and  sinew  thus  in  adamant." 

I  almost  heard  myself  answering  my  own  interroga- 
tive of  scorn  :  "  O,  king,  live  for  ever.  Men  were 
giants  in  thy  days."  But  I  could  not  stay.  I  was 
going  to  see  Pharaoh. 

Queen  Aahhotep's  wondrous  jewellery  glittered  near 
— she  whose  vast  Osiride  coffin,  ten  feet  high,  I  should 


90  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

presently  see  in  the  next  room.  It  was  wondrous, 
that  jewel  display ;  it  would  be  wondrous  for  work- 
manship in  any  display  of  crown  jewels  of  to-day.  It 
had  been  buried  with  her  who  was  mother  of  Aahmes, 
the  founder  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty  at  Thebes, 
1700  B.C.,  and  who  had  been  the  wife  of  Amenophis  I., 
who  succeeded  Aahmes. 

But  I  could  not  gaze  :  I  was  going  to  see  Pharaoh. 

On  into  the  "Salle  Funeraire,"  as  it  was  called,  I 
went.  I  knew  that  round  its  walls  were  the  house- 
hold furniture,  the  tables,  the  chairs,  the  writing- 
desks  of  Abraham's  time ;  that  such  agricultural  im- 
plements as  he  handled  were  here,  that  baskets  of 
fruit  such  as  he  ate  were  in  absolute  preservation  of 
dried  fruitage  on  the  shelves. 

On  my  right,  too,  was  that  famous  tomb-chamber 
prepared  for  the  Theban  grandee  Horhotpou  in  the 
dim  eleventh  dynasty,  more  than  2500  B.C.,  with  all 
its  painting  fresh  upon  it,  with  its  calendar  and  tables 
of  offerings  as  legible  as  when  they  were  painted.  But 
I  went  straight  forward. 

Before  me  was  the  open  portal  of  the  "  Salle  des 
Momies  royales,"  and  I  was  going  to  see  Pharaoh. 
With  a  curious  feeling  of  awe  and  expectancy,  I 
gained  the  room — the  entire  roof  supported  on  two 
pillars.  It  was  well  lit  from  above ;  seemed  to  be,  in 
part,  divided  into  two  by  projecting  walls  on  east  and 
west. 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  gi 

Against  these  partition  walls  stood  up  the  great 
solid  wooden-looking,  in  reality  hollow,  papier-mache 
images  of  Queen  Aahotpou,*  wife  of  Amenophis  I., 
and  mother  of  Aahmes  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  and 
Queen  Aahmes-Nefertari,  wife  of  Aahmes  or  Amosis, 
the  founder  of  the  dynasty  and  mother  of  Aahotpou. 

One  did  not  wonder  that  the  carriers  from  the  well- 
hole  at  Der-el-Bahari  had  groaned  beneath  the  burden 
of  these  giantesses,  with  their  crowns  and  double 
plumes  standing  now  ten  feet  high  ;  but  we  remem- 
bered how  the  mummy  of  one  inside  the  coffin,  which 
was  inside  the  giant  cartonage,  had  given  us  a  know- 
ledge of  how  the  jewellers  of  those  old  days  worked 
in  precious  stones  and  silver  and  gold,  and  one  could 
not  regret  that  the  Theban  mummy  stealer  had  lost 
his  sweat  and  his  booty  at  once. 

Cases  fronted  with  glass,  filled  with  the  finds  of 
wigs,  statuettes,  cups,  flowers,  emblems,  inside  the 
mummy  coffins,  ran  up  the  bays  right  and  left  of  the 
giantesses. 

All  round  the  room,  above  the  shelves  and  reaching 
to  the  ceiling,  coffin-cases,  with  their  quaint  human- 
looking  heads,  and  painted  wigs,  and  glass  eyes,  and 
golden  hands  projecting  from  their  painted  and 
enamelled  coffin-lids,  looked  down  upon  me.  Then 
immediately,  high  up  on  my  right  as  I  entered  the 

*  Spelt  also  Ahhotpou,  Aah-hotep,  and  Aah-hetep. 


92  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

room,  carved  out  of  plain  sycamore,  with  the  hands, 
well-modelled,  crossed  on  his  breast,  holding  a  four- 
corded  flail,  painted  red,  in  his  right  hand,  and  crook 
of  office,  painted  green,  in  his  left,  with  thin  plaited 
beard  and  heavy  eyebrows,  full  lips,  nose  a  little 
retrousse,  ears  large,  prominent  and  bored  for  jewellery, 
and  with  an  inscription  in  hieratics  of  black  ink,  and 
two  cartouches,  who  should  be  looking  with  dark 
enamel-eyes  out  of  his  smooth  Osirian-shaped  coffin 
lid  but  an  image  of  Pharaoh — the  great  Pharaoh  I  had 
come  to  see. 

I  had  been  made  familiar  with  some  of  the  royal 
cartouches,  and  at  once  recognised  these.  The  pre- 
nomen  Ra-User-ma  Sotep-en-ra,  and  the  nomen  Ra- 
Meri-Su-meri-Amen.  Ah !  favourite  of  Ammon,  beloved 
of  the  sun,  it  is  you  I  have  come  so  far  to  seek  !  And 
though  this  coffin-lid  is,  by  its  shape,  not  earlier  in 
date  than  the  twenty-first  dynasty,  its  absence  of  all 
attempt  at  ornament  tells  a  tale.  When  Pharaoh  was 
last  coffined,  1000  years  before  Christ,  the  coffin- 
makers  made  haste,  for  the  name  of  the  great  Egyp- 
tian Barneses  II.  had  ceased  to  be  the  name  of  a 
god,  and  decency,  not  honour,  was  due  to  his  mortal 
remains. 

Beneath  this  coffin-lid,  and  ranged  as  close  as 
possible  along  the  southern  side  of  the  room  at  my 
back,  were  the  splendid  coffins  and  sarcophagi  of 
lustrous  enamel  and  wonderful  painting  from  Der-el- 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  93 

Bahari,  in  various  degrees  of  preservation.  I  did  not 
ask  whose  they  were  ;  my  guide  had  his  face  set  as 
though  the  Pharaoh  I  had  come  to  see  lay  on  the 
northern  or  further  side  of  the  room,  and  simply  with- 
drawing his  finger  from  pointing  up  at  the  coffin- 
lid  of  sycamore,  he  gave  a  click  as  he  said  "Ramses 
Deux."  I  passed  forward  into  the  sanctum,  the  part 
of  the  room  beyond  the  pillars,  beyond  the  bays, 
beyond  the  giant  Osirian  cartonages ;  yet  had  I  not 
been  under  a  spell  I  must  have  stopped  in  the  middle 
of  the  room,  for  there  in  the  centre  of  the  nearest 
division  was  a  funereal  bed,  a  kind  of  open  litter 
of  wood-work,  resting  upon  two  lions,  whose  heads 
were  painted  green,  whose  tails  were  long  and  up- 
curled,  and  whose  feet  made  as  it  were  the  feet  of  the 
litter. 

Within  the  balustrades,  upon  the  litter  lay  the 
mummy  of  the  daughter  of  Prince  Takelot,  of  the 
twenty-third  dynasty,  a  princess  and  priestess  of 
Ammon ;  but  it  was  evident  at  a  glance  that  the  forty- 
four  seven-inch  balustrades  of  red  and  green  and  blue, 
which  bore  the  cornice  and  frieze  of  blue  and  yellow, 
banded  with  green,  red,  blue,  and  yellow  bands,  was 
much  earlier  in  date,  and  by  its  appearance  was  evi- 
dently intended  to  represent  the  decorations  and 
shape  of  a  Theban  tomb  of  the  eleventh  dynasty, 
and  such  Mr.  Brugsch  Bey  told  me  it  was  indeed. 
On  such  funeral  beds,  before  embarkation  on  the 


94  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

funeral  barge,  lay,  beneath  the  wreaths  and  offerings 
of  lotus  and  acacia,  the  noble  dead  in  the  days  that 
were  2000  years  before  Christ. 

But  I  was  going  to  see  Pharaoh :  and  on  I  went. 
But  again  I  stopped,  for  beyond  it,  under  a  large  glass 
case,  was  an  exact  reproduction,  on  a  scale  of  one- 
third,  of  the  leather  funeral  tent  or  canopy  of  the 
mummy  Uast-em-Khebit,  of  the  twenty-first  dynasty, 
which  was  found  near  her  coffin,  and  which  must  do 
duty  here  till  the  original  of  dyed  leather  has  been 
thoroughly  restored. 

At  a  rough  guess,  the  original  must  have  been  about 
10  feet  6,  by  7  feet  6  wide,  and  8  feet  high;  and 
glorious  must  it  have  appeared  on  the  morning  they 
rowed  Uast-em-Khebit,  the  mother  of  Pinotem  III.,  of 
the  twenty-first  dynasty,  to  her  royal  rest,  her  eternal 
home  among  the  Theban  hills. 

The  top  of  the  funeral  tent  seemed  to  be  striped 
with  stars  and  devices  that  looked  like  daisies  of 
yellow  and  pink  on  a  blue-green  ground ;  a  band  of 
six-winged  hawks  of  the  sun  ran  round.  The  sides 
and  ends  looked  like  a  patchwork  of  pink  and  green 
chessboard  squares  ;  these  draperies  hung  down  from 
a  cornice  made  of  scarabs,  holding  in  their  arms  pink 
fans  and  lotus  flowers  in  squares. 

In  front,  on  the  frieze  as  it  were,  gazelles  crouched 
by  a  palm  cluster,  with  lotus  flowers  about  their  necks ; 
at  the  back,  on  the  bottom  of  the  curtain,  shone  out  a 


PHARAOH  IN   THE  FLESH  95 

hawk  of  gold,  12  inches  across,  and  on  the  curtains 
either  side,  by  way  of  ornament,  were  four  scarab 
panels,  with  five  urseus  basilisks  alternate. 

But  all  this  closer  observation  was  made  by  me  at 
a  later  time.  I  could  only,  in  my  impatience,  get  a 
rough  glance  of  a  square  tent  in  miniature,  flat-roofed, 
with  drapery  straight  down,  a  cube  of  pink  and  green 
patchwork,  with  colours  fresh  and  wonderful,  more 
like  five  painted  chessboards,  set  up  in  form  of  a  box 
upside  down,  than  anything  else. 

I  could  not  the  least  realise  then  the  wonderful 
patience  of  Messieurs  Bouriant  and  Brugsch  Bey,  the 
restorers  of  the  original,  and  makers  of  this  model  in 
all  its  exactness  as  to  scale  and  colour. 

Neither  funeral  bed  of  the  eleventh  nor  funeral  tent 
of  the  twenty-first  dynasty  could  impress  me  as  they 
afterwards  did ;  for  I  was  going  to  see  Pharaoh. 

I  was  going  to  see  Pharaoh,  and  stood  in  the  door- 
way of  the  Salle  des  Momies — nay,  I  was  in  his  audi- 
ence chamber  now.  Round  me  as  I  looked — or  rather 
on  three  sides  of  me — lay,  with  their  feet  towards  me, 
what  might  have  been  twelve  coffins.  They  were  in 
reality  twelve  great  cases  of  pitch-pine,  with  glass  lids, 
inside  which  the  coffins  and  the  mighty  dead  now  lay. 
These  glass  coffin-containers  were  all  covered  with 
palls,  as  it  seemed  of  drab  cloth  :  a  curious  feeling  of 
an  inquest  came  over  me,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  were  in  a 
death-chamber,  about  to  gaze  upon  twelve  dead  bodies; 


96  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  yet  a  voice  within  me  seemed  to  say  :  "  They  are 
not  dead,  they  sleep  :  do  not  wake  them." 

Neither  I  nor  the  guide  spoke.  What  a  presence- 
chamber  it  was.  Beneath  these  shrouds,  on  my  right, 
lay  nearest  me,  Pinotem  II.,  the  fourth  priest-king  of 
the  twenty-first  or  Her-Hor  dynasty.  Next,  Makeri 
(Ramaka)  with  her  little  child,  a  pink  grey  bundle,  at 
her  feet — poor  queen,  she  died  in  childbirth.  Next, 
Nebseni,  the  famous  priest-scribe  of  the  Her-Hor 
dynasty ;  next,  Notemhit,  or  Netemhut,  the  proud 
mother  of  Her-Hor,  the  founder  of  this  line  of  priest- 
kings,  in  whose  family-vault  these  Pharaohs  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  dynasties  had  been  so  mar- 
vellously preserved  to  us. 

Not  one  of  these  mummies  lived  before  noo  B.C., 
or  after  1000  B.C. 

Immediately  in  front  of  me  lay  four  other  illustrious 
dead  in  their  glass-covered  drab-palled  coffin-cases  : 
Aahmes  I.  or  Amosis,  the  friend  of  the  gallant  old 
pug-faced  admiral  who  bore  his  name,  and  who  fought 
his  ships  of  old  so  bravely,  the  "  Calf,"  and  "  The 
North,"  and  "  The  going  up  into  Memphis  " ;  Aahmes, 
the  founder  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  date  1700  B.C., 
the  conqueror  at  Avaris  and  Sherohan,  the  warrior  of 
a  twenty-two  years'  war,  the  restorer  of  the  rightful  line 
of  Pharaohs  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherd  Kings. 
Next  to  him,  on  his  left  as  I  looked,  Rameses  II. ;  next 
to  him  Seti  I.,  his  father,  1366  B.C.,  both  of  the 


PHARAOH  IN   THE  FLESH  97 

nineteenth  dynasty ;  next  him  Thothmes  II.,  king  of 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  B.C.  1600.  To  complete  the 
horseshoe  on  the  left  side  of  the  room  we  must  name 
Amenophis  I.,  who  succeeded  Aahmes,  the  second  king 
of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  1666  B.C. 

Next  to  him,  on  his  left  as  I  gazed,  lay  Rameses 
III.,  the  founder  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  1200  B.C. 
Next  to  him,  Princess  Nessi  Chensu,  of  the  twenty- 
first  dynasty  ;  and  last,  and  next  to  her,  Raskenen  * 
Tiouaquen,  the  man  who  fought  and  fell  for  liberty 
in  the  war  of  independence  that  eventually  banished  the 
Hyksos  somewhere  in  the  seventeenth  century  B.C. 

All  this  was  riot,  of  course,  known  to  me  as  I 
approached  the  mighty  Pharaoh  where  he  lay.  I  had 
a  general  idea  that  I  was  in  the  presence  of  royalty 
that  had  fallen  asleep  between  1680  and  1000  years 
before  Christ.  The  thought  staggered  me.  "  Rameses 
Kebeer  henak  "  ("  Pharaoh,  the  great  one,  is  there  "), 
said  the  swarthy  guide  ;  and  with  a  look  of  reverence 
upon  his  fine  face,  he  moved  the  coverlet  and  pall  a 
little  from  the  glass,  slowly  turned  it  back,  and  let  it 
slide,  of  its  own  weight,  off  the  sloping  frame ;  and 
there,  full  length  within  his  coffin,  looking  up  at  me 
with  his  proud  gaunt  face  that  had  outfaced  the  world, 
with  his  withered  hands  across  his  breast  almost  in 
attitude  of  prayer,  the  mighty  king,  in  his  great 

*  Known  also  as  Seqenen-Ra. 


98  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

slumber,  lay ;  and  I  knew  what  it  was  to  be  in  the 
presence  of  him  before  whom  Egypt  trembled,  and 
the  Hittites  fled,  and  from  whom  the  Israelites,  bowed 
down  in  bitter  bondage  in  the  brickfields  of  Rameses 
and  Pitum,  cried  unto  the  Lord  their  God.  There 
A-nakhtu,  the  great  warrior  as  he  was  called,  was 
taking  his  rest — he  who  had  escaped  from  the  Hittites 
when  "  he  was  all  alone  and  none  other  was  with  him," 
who  had  burst  through  the  blazing  faggots  of  reeds 
that  so  nigh  consumed  his  royal  tent  at  Pelusium 
that  day  his  treacherous  brother  made  him  his  guest, 
and  would  have  murdered  him  as  he  slept,  full  of  wine, 
— he  who  had  faced  death  in  so  many  ways  was  now 
alone,  was  dead ;  but  dead,  he  yet  defied  corruption. 

The  coffin  wherein  the  great  Pharaoh  rested,  was 
about  two  inches  thick,  less  thick  and  much  less  deep 
and  less  large  than  the  one  near  it,  in  which  his  father 
Seti  lay. 

Washed  with  pinkish  colour  outside,  it  was  within 
painted  with  a  yellow  wash  of  ochre,  its  bottom  roughly 
daubed  with  pitch.  Made,  as  all  the  Osirian  coffins  are 
made,  more  or  less  to  fit  the  body,  this  was  no  excep- 
tion to  the  rule ;  but  at  a  glance,  after  contrasting  it 
with  the  usual  elaborately  ornamented  and  decorated 
insides  of  coffins  of  royalty,  with  their  winged  hawks, 
their  "  Uta  "  eyes,  their  emblems  of  the  guardians  of 
the  soul,  their  goddess  Neiths,  their  priests  in  atti- 
tude of  offering,  and  the  like,  it  was  quite  plain  that 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  99 

this  was  not  the  original  coffin  in  which,  somewhere 
about  the  year  1300  B.C.,  the  Pharaoh  Rameses  II. 
had  been  laid,  but  one  that  had  been  made  in  haste, 
and  that  by  appearance  and  shape,  was  as  late  as  the 
twenty-first  dynasty.  Two  inscriptions  in  hieratics 
bear  out  this.  First,  we  learn  from  these,  that  the 
official  inspectors  of  the  tombs,  in  the  sixth  year  of 
Her-Hor,  founder  of  the  twenty-first  dynasty,  visited 
the  royal  tomb  1100  B.C.  There,  for  two  centuries 
the  body  had  probably  lain  undisturbed,  but  it  is 
clear  that  about  this  time,  as  we  learn  from  the 
Abbott-papyrus,  the  tombs  of  the  royal  kings  were 
being  looted.  The  "  Amherst  "-papyrus  details  a  full 
confession  of  a  tomb-breaker  and  body-snatcher  of 
this  date.  "  We  found  the  august  king,"  says  this 
penitent  thief,  "  with  his  divine  axe  beside  him,  and 
his  amulets  and  ornaments  of  gold  about  his  neck ; 
his  head  was  covered  with  gold,  and  his  august 
person  was  entirely  covered  with  gold ;  his  coffin  was 
overlaid  with  gold  and  silver  within  and  without,  and 
incrusted  with  all  kinds  of  precious  stones."  What, 
think  you,  did  this  forerunner  of  the  rogue  Abd  er- 
Rasvil  do  ?  Hear  his  own  confession  :  "  We  took  the 
gold  which  we  found  upon  the  sacred  person  of  this 
god,  as  also  his  amulets  and  the  ornaments  which  were 
about  his  neck,  and  the  coffins  in  which  he  reposed." 
It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  tomb-inspector 
of  Her-Hor  found  that  the  coffin  of  Rameses  II.  was 


loo  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

being  thus  tampered  with,  for  we  find  that  ten  years 
after  that  first  official  inspection,  a  commission  of 
priests  visits  the  coffin  of  Rameses  II.,  which  is  no 
longer  in  his  own  eternal  home,  but  in  the  tomb  of 
his  father  Seti  I.  On  an  inscription  on  the  coffins  of 
Seti  and  Rameses  II.  it  is  stated  that  the  bodies  of 
the  kings — father  and  son — are  unharmed,  but  for 
safety's  sake  they  deem  it  expedient  to  move  the 
mummies  to  the  tomb  of  Queen  Ansera,  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty.  But  again  the  robbers  got  wind 
of  it.  In  ten  years'  time,  in  the  twentieth  year  of 
Pinotem  I. — that  is,  in  about  the  year  1023  B.C. — this 
body,  on  which  we  are  gazing,  was  removed  for 
security's  sake  to  the  tomb  of  Amenophis  I.,  the 
second  king  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  who  had  died 
1635  B-C- 

It  rested  here  for  six  years,  and  then,  as  we  learn  from 
hieratics  on  one  of  the  breast  bandages  of  the  royal 
mummy,  Pharaoh  was  removed  for  the  fourth  time, 
and  carried  to  his  father's  tomb  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Kings.  He  was  not  found  there  after  all,  but  in  the 
family  vault  of  Her-Hor,  as  we  know,  at  Der-el-Bahari. 
Is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  then,  that  this  rough  coffin- 
case,  in  which  the  great  king  lies,  is  not  the  original 
coffin,  but  shows  signs  of  haste  and  expediency  in  its 
making  ? 

Now,  look  at  the  mummy :  he  fairly  fills  the  coffin 
length — yes,  though  he  has  shrunk,  as  all  dead  bodies 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  101 

do,  as  old  men  are  shrunk  before  they  die,  he  measures 
still  more  than  six  feet,  as  he  lies.  He  must  have  in 
life  been  six  foot  two,  or  six  foot  three,  at  least. 

A  life-guardsman  in  mould,  in  very  truth  he  must 
have  seemed.  Withered  though  the  muscles  on 
his  neck  to  his  spinal  column's  girth  be,  what  a  length 
of  neck  it  must  have  seemed !  And  swathed  though 
he  be  in  his  yellow  mummy-cloth  shroud  of  well- 
woven  linen,  yet  his  shoulders  are  bare  to  view. 
What  mighty  shoulders  they  were  !  What  breadth  of 
chest  must  have  been  his  ! 

I  gazed  upon  Pharaoh.  I  saw  him  standing  in  his 
chariot  once  again  on  that  glorious  battle-field  of 
Kadesh,  by  the  river  Orontes,  when  he  arose,  as 
the  contemporary  court-poet  Pen-ta-ur  tells  us  in  his 
forcible  epic,  like  Menthu,  god  of  war,  "  and  urged  on 
his  steeds,  whose  names  were  '  Triumph  in  Thebes,' 
and  '  The  Divine  Mother.'  None  dared  follow ;  he 
was  alone,  and  none  other  with  him  ;  and  lo  !  he  was 
encircled  by  the  Khetan  host — 2500  chariots  were 
around  him,  and  countless  hosts  cut  off  the  way  behind." 

"  Not  one  of  his  friends,  not  one  of  the  captains  of 
his  chariots,  not  one  of  his  knights  was  with  him ;  his 
bodyguard  had  abandoned  him."  And  I  seemed  to  see 
the  great  warrior  lift  himself  in  his  chariot,  and  hear 
him  cry  unto  the  lord  his  god  in  passionate  prayer  : 
"Where  art  thou,  my  Father  Amen;  has  ever  a  father 
forgotten  his  son  ?  Shall  it  be  for  nothing  that  I  have 


102  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

dedicated  to  thee  many  and  noble  temples?  My 
warriors  have  deserted  me;  but  what  are  multitudes 
of  men  against  me  ?  More  to  me  is  thy  power  than 
myriads  of  men.  On  thee,  Father  Amen,  do  I  call." 

A  light  seemed  again  to  come  into  the  dead 
warrior's  face  as  he  felt  his  prayer  was  heard,  in  the 
temple  of  the  god  at  Hermonthis.  "  Amen  heard  his 
.voice,  and  carne  to  his  cry.  He  reached  his  hand  to 
him,  and  the  warrior  shouted  for  joy.  He  called  out 
to  him  :  '  I  have  hastened  to  thee,  Rameses,  my  well- 
beloved.  The  brave  heart  I  love,  it  has  my  blessing ;  I 
am  with  thee  ;  I  am  he,  thy  Father — the  sun-god  Ra. 
My  hand  is  with  thee.' " 

' '  All  this,"  so  sang  Pen-ta-ur  the  bard,  "  came  to  pass ; " 
and  we,  as  we  look  upon  this  great  king  in  his  coffin 
now — we  can  see  him,  in  the  fury  of  that  desperate 
charge,  rushing  on  his  foes  like  a  flame  of  fire.  See 
those  long  arms,  and  that  powerful  frame  swayed  in 
the  terrible  contest,  and  dealing  the  blows  of  a  giant 
right  and  left,  while  the  Hittites  fell  like  chaff  before 
the  feet  of  his  horses,  and  we  can  realise  how  terrible, 
how  like  a  god,  he  must  then  have  seemed,  of  whom 
the  poet  sang : 

"  I  was  changed  at  the  voice  of  Amen,  being  made 
like  the  God  Menthu  in  my  might.  I  hurled  the  dart 
with  my  right  hand,  1  fought  with  my  left ;  none  dared 
to  raise  his  hand  against  me.  They  could  not  shout, 
nor  grasp  the  spear  ;  their  limbs  gave  way  beneath 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  103 

them.  I  made  them  fall  into  the  water,  as  the  crocodiles 
fall  into  the  stream.  Each  cried  to  his  fellow,  '  It  is 
no  mortal  man  who  is  against  us,  it  is  Seti  the 
mighty — it  is  the  God  of  War.' " 

I  think,  as  one  realises  the  statue  of  Rameses  II. 
laid  in  his  long  coffin,  as  one  looks  on  his  face  in  the 
sleep  that  knows  no  breaking,  one  can  imagine  the 
awe  and  terror  with  which,  when  roused  to  passion  or 
rebuke,  this  god  incarnate,  as  he  was  believed  to 
be,  must  have  been  invested,  at  court  01 
camp,  on  throne  or  battle-field.  Terrible  as  his 
favourite  lion  "  Semen-Kephtu-f,"  or  "  Tearer  to 
Pieces,"  must  have  seemed  as  it  lay  at  his  throne-steps 
or  ramped  to  battle  at  the  chariot-wheel  of  his  royal 
master,  more  terrible  must  have  seemed  the  lord  of 
lions  and  the  lion-city  Heliopolis,  the  son  of  the  sun, 
the  favourite  of  Ammon,  as  with  his  reins  girt  round 
about  his  waist,  to  leave  his  great  arms  free  for  bow 
and  spear,  Rameses  II.  rushed  into  battle  and  thun- 
dered his  commands. 

Let  us  look  at  his  face  closely.  In  colour  it  is 
light  brown,  almost  yellow  in  fairness.  The  head  is 
narrow,  and  is  what  we  should  call  dolicho-cephalic — 
that  is,  the  head  is  thin  and  projects  far  backward — 
the  length  from  nose  to  back  of  the  skull  is  very  con- 
siderable. There  is  a  swelling  out  of  the  skull  over 
the  ears :  I  expect  the  believer  in  bumps  would  say 
that  Pharaoh  was  probably  mischievous  ;  the  forehead 


104  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

is  high,  but  so  far  from  being  straight  or  prominent,  it 
retreats,  and  must  have  in  life  taken  much  from  the 
dignity  of  the  face.  The  eyes  are  nearer  than  I  had 
expected  to  see  them — nearer  together,  as  I  found  out 
afterwards,  than  his  father  Seti's  eyes ;  the  eyebrows, 
to  judge  by  the  sparse  white  hairs  that  still  remain, 
must  have  been  thick ;  certainly  if  we  may  judge  from 
a  gem  which  gives  us  the  portrait  of  his  Mesopo- 
tamian  mother,  Queen  Tua,  his  eyebrows  were  his 
mother's  eyebrows.  Bald  though  he  was,  on  the 
crown  of  his  head,  he  must  have  had  abundante  of 
hair,  by  what  remains  to  him  at  the  back.  It  is  true 
it  appears  now  yellow,  but  this  is  partially  owing  to 
the  stains  of  the  embalming  unguents;  and  the  old  man, 
of  near  a  hundred  summers,  must  have  gone  to  his 
grave  with  a  circlet  of  snow-white  hair,  snow-white  eye- 
brows, and  a  snow-white  moustache  upon  his  upper  lip. 
But  it  was  not  in  his  head  that  lay  his  strength, 
nor  in  his  brow,  nor  in  his  eyes.  No  ;  Pharaoh's 
strength  of  face  lay  and  lies  in  the  nose,  the  ears,  the 
mouth,  and  the  chin.  The  nose,  unlike  his  father's 
and  his  mother's,  is  Napoleonic — a  beaked  Bourbon 
nose.  Truly  the  bandages  of  the  mummy  shroud 
have  pressed  upon  the  tip  of  the  nose,  and  exaggerated 
the  eagle-beaked  ness,  but  it  must  have  been  the 
feature  of  the  great  Pharaoh's  face — this  great,  strong 
aquiline  nose.  The  ears  are  large  and  flat — larger 
than  were  the  ears  of  any  of  the  royal  mummies  I 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  105 

examined ;  great  elephant-flappers  of  ears,  that  stood 
out  from  the  head.  I  have  often  seen  such  ears 
associated  with  love  of  music,  and  I  do  not  believe 
that  the  poets  Pen-ta-ur  and  Amenemapht  would  have 
had  so  much  encouragement  given  them  under 
Rameses  II.  had  not  this  Pharaoh  loved  the  sound 
of  the  harpers.  The  ears  had  been  bored  for  jewels, 
but  both  lower  lobes  had  been  broken.  The  cheek- 
bones were  high  and  prominent,  and  gave  perhaps,  in 
life,  a  certain  haughty,  overbearing  strength  to  the  less 
powerful  upper  part  of  the  face.  I  was  struck  by  the 
length  from  the  nose  to  the  lip.  As  for  the  mouth, 
it  had  once  had  lips  full  fleshed,  fuller-fleshed  cer- 
tainly than  the  lips  of  Seti,  his  father,  and  though 
the  mouth  was  a  little  brutal,  I  should  think,  in  life, 
it  did  not  give  me  the  impression  of  sensualism  or 
want  of  refinement.  It  was  a  strong  mouth,  it  was  a 
stubborn  mouth  ;  it  seemed  a  mouth  of  contempt  and 
self-will,  a  mouth  of  pride  ;  but  not  necessarily,  a  mouth 
of  animalism. 

The  teeth  were  white — much  worn  and  brittle,  but 
wonderful  teeth  for  a  centenarian,  and  well-set.  The 
strength  of  the  face  was  emphasised  by  the  chin, 
square  and  massive,  with  great  length  from  front  of 
chin  to  ear,  full  of  power  and  force  ;  the  pride  of  the 
face  seemed  doubled  by  the  set  of  that  chin ;  there 
were  upon  it  slight  traces  of  a  beard  of  coarse  hair, 
that  may  have  grown  after  death.  The  face  was  worn 


106  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  thin :  what  old  man's  of  near  a  hundred  years 
would  not  be  ?  There  were  slight  traces  of  wrinkles 
upon  the  brow. 

The  father  of  a  hundred  and  nineteen  children — 
fifty-nine  sons  and  sixty  daughters,  as  the  outer  wall 
of  the  Temple  of  Abydos  tells  us — he  was  the  pos 
sessor  of  many  concubines,  and  of  at  least  four  lawful 
wives;  we  might  have  supposed  that  the  cares  of 
a  family  would  have  worn  his  face,  if  the  cares  of  all 
Egypt  and  the  Egyptian  court-life  of  sixty-seven 
years — for  the  monuments  expressly  tell  us  he  did 
reign  sixty-seven  years — had  not  left  their  mark  upon 
it.  But  though  a  side  face  or  profile  view  of  the  great 
king,  as  obtained  by  a  photograph,  gives  a  look  of 
fatigue  and  a  certain  gladness  to  be  at  rest,  I  could 
not,  do  what  I  would,  see  in  that  proud,  obstinate 
face  of  the  warrior-king  in  his  shroud  before  me,  any- 
thing that  looked  like  a  yielding  to  the  weight  of 
years ;  there  was  a  kind  of  "  What  is  all  this  to  me  ?  Am 
I  not  son  of  the  sun — Rameses,  favourite  of  Ammon  ? 
Shall  not  my  years  endure  as  long  as  the  sun  shineth 
in  his  strength  ?  Will  not  my  sun  that  sets,  arise  in 
the  morning  ?  "  Monsieur  Maspero  wrote  the  day  he 
unwrapped  the  great  Sesostris  (you  will  find  it  in 
the  Academy  of  July  3,  1886) :  "  In  fine,  the  mask  of 
the  mummy  gives  a  very  sufficient  idea  of  what  the 
king  was  in  life  :  an  expression  not  very  intellectual, 
perhaps  rather  animal,  but  of  pride  and  obstinacy,  and 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  107 

with  an  air  of  sovereign  majesty,  still  to  be  seen 
through  all  the  grotesque  appearance  of  the  embodi- 
ment." I  did  not  find  this  animalism  was  in  the  face ; 
rather — as  I  note  on  looking  at  my  diary  of  several 
audiences  of  the  great  Pharaoh  in  his  death-chamber 
— I  felt  that  there  was  a  certain  refinement  about  a 
face  whose  weakness  lay  in  the  forehead,  whose  might 
lay  in  the  chin  and  in  the  eagle  nose. 

As  for  the  rest  of  the  body,  still  might  be  seen  the 
wound  in  the  side,  whence  the  embalmer's  hand 
withdrew  the  viscera  at  the  time  of  death.  The 
thighs  and  legs  were -thin,  the  feet  large  and  flat.  I 
was  struck  with  the  coarseness  or  thickness  of  the 
ankles,  but  got  therefrom  an  idea  of  the  robust 
strength  of  this  Pharaoh,  whose  natural  force  was 
unabated  when  the  death-hour  came,  and  who  could 
probably  then,  as  he  did  in  the  Hittite  battle,  stand 
alone.  His  feet  had  been,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
time,  rubbed  red  with  henna,  and  as  I  looked  on  the 
hands — laid  peacefully  across  one  another  on  his  breast, 
the  left  hand  over  the  right — I  noticed  what  long 
hands  and  fingers  they  were ;  how  neatly,  too,  the 
nails  had  been  cut  into  points,  the  middle  finger  of 
the  left  hand  being  specially  noticeable,  and  how 
carefully  they  also  had  been  dyed  with  the  rich  red 
henna-stain  before  they  had  been  packed  up,  finger  by 
finger,  in  the  swathing  bauds  of  eternity,  the  linen  of 
the  embalming  priests. 


io8  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Ah !  how  one  wished  to  question  the  mighty 
monarch  ;  but  he  was  silent — his  mouth  stopped  with 
the  embalmer's  black  paste  that  was  put  there  3187 
years  ago. 

And  this  is  the  "  Bull  in  the  land  of  Rutennu,"  "  the 
Hawk  of  the  Sun,"  "  A-nakhtu  the  Warrior/'  he  who 
conquered  Kush  and  led  into  captivity  the  people  of 
Shashu,  the  hero  of  the  battle  against  the  Kheta,  who 
washed  his  heart,  as  the  poet  puts  it,  in  the  blood  of 
his  enemies,  the  architect  of  the  city  of  the  sun 
Heliopolis  and  the  temple-city  Rameses,  the  founder 
of  Memphis  with  its  bull-arena  and  its  glorious  temple 
to  Ptah  or  Vulcan,  the  beautifier  of  Abydos,  the  gold- 
digger  in  Nubia,  the  well-digger  in  the  land  of  Kush, 
the  brickmaker  at  Pitum  and  canal-designer  in  the 
field  of  Zoan,  the  endower  of  libraries  for  Thebes,  the 
mighty  builder  of  the  Ramesseum,  the  giver  of  a 
hundred  temples  to  the  gods  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 
He  who  set  up  his  mighty  double  images  of  limestone 
at  Memphis,  his  red  colossal  statue  on  the  Theban 
plain,  who  had  himself  painted  at  Abu  Simbel  and 
Abydos,  and  carved  wonderfully  at  Tanis  and  on  the 
facade  of  the  Temple  of  Hathor  at  Abu  Simbel, 
who  sits  on  the  southern  colossus  at  the  great  temple 
of  Abu  Simbel,  who  smiles  upon  us  from  the  rosy 
syenite,  that  once  adorned  the  Ramesseum,  in  the 
Egyptian  court  of  the  British  Museum.  The  in- 
scriber  of  his  name  and  deeds  upon  the  obelisk 


PHARAOH  IN  THE  FLESH  109 

which  stands  above  our  London  river ;  who  calls 
himself  thereon,  boastfully  but  truly  enough,  "The 
guardian  of  Egypt,  chastiser  of  foreign  lands,  drag- 
ging foreigners  of  the  southern  nations  to  the  great 
sea,  and  the  foreigners  of  northern  nations  to  the 
four  poles  of  heaven."  The  recreator  of  Egypt  in  a 
very  real  sense,  who,  in  his  prayer  to  the  god  of 
Memphis,  said,  "  I  have  cared  for  the  land  in  order 
to  create  for  thee  a  new  Egypt,"  of  whom  the  scribe 
at  Memphis  wrote,  "  All  are  as  one,  to  celebrate  the 
powers  of  this  god,  even  of  King  Rameses  Meri- 
Amen,  the  war-god  of  the  world." 

There  in  his  coffin,  life's  battle  won,  life's  long  work 
done,  lies  the  war-god  and  the  peace-god  of  Egyptian 
history.  A  man  who  in  his  lifetime  dared  to  associate 
himself  with  the  great  gods  Ptah  and  Ammon  and 
Horus ;  father  of  the  princess  Meris,  who  drew  Moses 
from  the  bulrushes ;  the  oppressor  of  the  children  of 
Israel :  we  who  bow  the  knee  before  the  God  he 
knew  not,  how  can  we  not  be  impressed  with  the 
thought  of  such  pride  in  such  ashes  now  before  us  ? 

Yet  he  served  his  time,  prince  of  learning  and  father 
of  the  arts,  great  in  peace  as  he  was  great  in  war,  for 
a  whole  generation  would  know  him  more  as  an  acute 
administrator  than  as  a  warrior-king.  And  had  this 
Pharaoh  not  lived  and  reigned  his  sixty-seven  years, 
the  world  would  have  been  the  poorer.  We  feel  what 
that  shrivelled,  gaunt  body  in  the  coffin  there  aimed 


no  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

at  and  honoured,  as  vital  powers  to  kindle  and  restrain 
us  still.  As  I  gazed  for  the  last  time  upon  that  proud 
forcible  face,  the  gratitude  and  strength  of  the  lime- 
stone colossus  among  the  palms  of  Memphis ;  the 
gentleness  and  affection  portrayed  in  the  statue  by 
the  side  of  his  wife  at  the  right  of  the  faQade  of  the 
Temple  of  Hathor  at  Abu  Simbel;  the  superiority 
and  calm  carelessness  of  might  upon  the  face  of  the 
southern  colossus  at  the  great  temple  of  Abu  Simbel ; 
the  fire  in  his  face  in  that  war-chariot  at  the  Hittite 
battle,  as  seen  pictured  atthe  Ramesseum;  the  thought- 
fulness,  mingling  with  scorn,  of  the  colossal  face  at 
Tanis — all  seemed  to  come  together  and  live  again  in 
the  withered  cheeks  of  the  tall  old  king.  The  mummy 
of  Sesostris,  at  the  end  of  his  3187  years,  justifies  all 
the  chief  portrait-sculptors  of  his  day  as  being  true, 
and  makes  us,  who  have  seen  Pharaoh  again  in  the 
flesh,  acknowledge,  at  the  same  time,  that  this  was  in- 
deed Rameses,  the  Great  One. 

What  a  resurrection  from  the  dead  it  all  is  !  How 
the  centuries  run  back  upon  themselves  as  we  gaze  ! 
One  of  the  very  oars,  or  paddles,  with  which  they  rowed 
his  body  across  the  sacred  lake,  to  his  burial  in  the  hill 
above  the  Theban  plain,  is  there  within  that  cabinet 
close  by;  and  there  too  are  the  blue  lotus  flowers — their 
colour  still  faint  upon  them — with  which  they  gar- 
landed the  dead  king,  and  decked  him  for  the  tomb. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SETI,  THE  FATHER  OF   PHARAOH   THE    GREAT  ! 
AN  HISTORICAL  SKETCH. 

IT  was  well,  perhaps,  to  have  seen  first  the  withered 
cheeks  of  Pharaoh  the  Great.  The  glamour  of  his 
fame  and  name  eclipses  much  of  the  splendour  of 
Egyptian  kings,  after  and  before.  But  when  one  has 
been  told  of,  or  seen  face  to  face,  a  hero,  great  in  peace 
as  great  in  war,  one  naturally  wishes  to  see  the  father 
who  begat  him,  and  to  hear  of  the  mother  who  gave 
him  birth. 

Let  us  turn  and  look  on  the  features  of  the  father 
of  Rameses  II.,  the  man  best  known  to  us  to-day  by 
the  name  of  Seti,  or  Sethos  the  First,  and  let  us  recall 
something  of  his  life's  history. 

Variously  named  as  this  great  king  was — now  Oime- 
neptah,  now  Osirimeneptah  (from  which  by  meta- 
thesis, the  historian  Diodorus  got  the  distorted  form 
Osymundyas),  now  Usiris,  now  Men-meri — we  find  his 
cartouche  or  seal  signature  quite  as  varied  as  the 
sounding  of  his  name. 


112  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Sometimes,  for  the  first  letter  of  his  name,  a  long- 
eared  Abyssinian  dog  is  seen  to  be  carved.  Some- 
times the  letter  A,  which  this  dog  represented,  has 
been  chiselled  out,  and  either  a  hawk  has  been  carved 
in  its  place  to  signify  the  same  letter,  or  else  an  Osiris 
is  seen  sitting,  to  signify  that  the  royal  name  should 
begin  with  an  O  and  not  with  an  A. 

But  the  latest  Egyptologists  speak  of  him  as  vari- 
ously called  Mineptah  I.,  which  means  the  favourite 
of  Vulcan,  or  Seti  I.,  which  bespeaks  his  adherence 
to  a  connection,  by  descent  or  inclination,  with  the 
Baal  worshippers  and  believers  in  Typhon,  of  the 
Phoenician  or  Mesopotamian  country  to  the  north. 

At  first  sight  it  might  seem  of  little  matter  that  this 
king,  the  father  of  Rameses  II.  the  Great,  should  bear 
this  name.  We  will  endeavour  to  show  that  there  is 
much  in  the  name,  and  that  we  may  do  this  more 
clearly,  we  must  give  an  account  of  the  ending  of  the 
former  dynasty,  the  eighteenth  dynasty  as  it  is  called, 
which  existed  from  1700  to  1400  B.C.,  and  of  the 
troubles  that  fell  upon  the  land  preceding  the  nine- 
teenth dynasty,  of  which  Seti's  father,  Rameses  I.,  was 
founder  in  the  year  1400  B.C. 

The  Shepherd  Kings,  those  strange  people  whose 
Tartar-looking  faces  remain  to  us  on  the  black  basalt 
sphinxes,  Mariette  Bey  discovered  in  the  field  of  Zoan, 
had  reigned  their  500  years,  and  had  passed  away. 
After  a  struggle  of  forty  years'  civil  war,  or  war  of  inde- 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  113 

pendence,  in  which  the  brave  Taa-Ken  *  had  fallen  for 
his  country  and  the  true  kings  of  old ;  those  rightful 
kings  of  old,  the  Pharaohs  of  the  true  line,  ascended 
the  throne,  and  Aahmes,  or  Amosis,  the  general  and 
admiral  in  one,  began  the  eighteenth  dynasty  of 
Thebes,  in  about  the  year  1700  B.C. 

That  eighteenth  dynasty  was  glorious  with  such  war- 
riors as  Thothmes  III.,  such  builders  as  Amenhotep  III., 
whose  mighty  Memnon  figures  sit  to-day  above  the 
Theban  plain,  memorials  of  marvellous  engineering 
feats  and  royal  thirst  for  glory. 

But  the  end  of  that  dynasty  was  troubled,  and  a 
foreign  queen — Thi,  or  Tia,  or  Taia — was  the  cause 
of  it. 

Amenhotep  loved  not  wisely,  but  too  well  ;  and 
from  whatever  land  f  his  foreign  consort  had  come, 
she  brought  with  her  such  a  profound  horror  for  the 
worship  of  the  sun's  disk,  as  opposed  to  the  orthodox 
worship  of  Amen  Ra,  the  sun,  at  his  rising,  noon,  and 
setting,  and  so  instilled  the  new  heresy  into  her  son, 
Amenophis  IV.,  that  he,  when  he  came  to  the  throne 

*  Called  also  Tiu-aquen  and  Se-qenen-Ra.  His  body  may  be 
seen  at  the  Gizeh  Museum,  with  the  death-wound  upon  his  fore- 
head. 

t  It  is  now  known  that  she  was  the  daughter  of  Tushratta  the 
king  of  Mitanni.  Interesting  correspondence-tablets  between 
the  king  and  the  court  of  Babylon,  Mesopotamia,  and  Phoenicia 
have  been  lately  discovered  at  Tell  el-Amarna. 

H 


II4  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

in  1466  (?),  threw  off  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  the 
worship  of  the  sun  as  an  embodiment  of  good  and  life. 
He  changed  his  name  to  Khu-en-aten,  or  Chut-en-aten 
— that  is,  "  the  splendour  of  the  sun's  disk," — turned  his 
back  upon  Memphis  and  Thebes,  and  set  up  a  new 
capital  at  a  place  in  middle  Egypt,  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Nile,  200  miles  south  of  Cairo.  Here 
rubbish  mounds,  with  their  broken  sherds  and 
evidences  of  scattered  ruins,  spread  behind  a  palm 
grove  by  the  river,  over  a  narrow  two  miles  of  ground, 
and  are  called  to-day  Tell  el-Amarna,  and  there,  in 
the  cliffs  that  form  a  natural  amphitheatre  to  the  plain, 
he  bade  his  architect,  one  Bek  by  name,  to  hew 
magnificent  temples  and  tomb-grottoes  in  hard  stone 
to  Aten,  the  sun's  disk.  He  had  fire  altars  cut  out  of 
red  syenitic  granite,  and  portraits  of  himself  carved, 
burning  incense  to  the  disk  of  the  sun,  each  ray  of 
which  stretches  out  a  hand  towards  the  heretic  king 
to  bless  him. 

This  heresy,  with  its  insult  to  the  sun-god  Ra,  its 
obliteration  of  the  sun -god's  name  from  the  public 
monuments,  and  its  desertion  of  the  temples  of 
Ammon  .at  Thebes,  tore  the  land  and  divided  it. 
Khu-en-aten's  young  wife,  Nofer  Tai,  or  Nofer-i-Thi, 
died  in  decline — a  judgment  from  heaven,  I  expect 
it  was  said,  at  the  time,  by  the  orthodox. 

The  priestly  caste  rose  against  the  king,  and  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  the  Horns,  or  Horemhib,  who  sue- 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT     115 

ceeded,  as  last  king  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  1466 
B.C.  (?),  was  rather  of  the  priestly,  than  of  the  royal  line 
— a  man  brought  from  the  darkness  of  comparative  re- 
tirement to  the  "  fierce  light  that  beats  upon  a  throne." 

This  Horus  had  been  apparently  much  what  Joseph 
had  been  in  Egypt,  a  kind  of  provincial  governor  or 
ruler.  Gentle  and  upright,  it  was  said  of  him:  "  He 
took  pleasure  in  justice,  which  he  carried  in  his  heart. 
He  followed  the  gods  Thoth  and  Ptah  in  all  their 
ways,  and  they  were  his  shield  and  protection  on 
earth  evermore."  "  Heaven  and  earth  rejoice  to- 
gether," says  a  contemporary  account  of  the  accession 
of  Horemhib  to  the  throne.  "  Heaven  kept  festival, 
and  all  the  land  was  glad;  the  deities  rejoiced  on 
high ;  the  people  of  Egypt  raised  their  rapturous  songs 
of  praise  even  unto  Heaven ;  and  great  and  small  united 
their  voices  with  one  accord.  It  was  as  if  Horus,  son 
of  Isis,  were  once  more  presenting  himself  after  his 
triumph  over  Set." 

He  did  what  he  could  to  mediate  between  the 
heretics  of  the  sun-disk  followers  and  the  much- 
abused  and  ill-treated  worshippers  of  the  sun  under 
the  name  Amen  Ra.  He  restored  the  seat  of 
government  at  Thebes,  with  its  cult  of  the  sun- god, 
and  beautified  and  built  up  the  town  of  Memphis, 
with  its  worship  of  Vulcan. 

He  died  childless,  after  a  reign  of  twenty-one  years. 
It  is  believed  that  a  generation  of  heretic  kings  sue- 


Il6  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

ceeded ;  be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  possible  that  the  man 
who  came  to  the  throne  as  the  establisher  of  the 
nineteenth  dynasty,  in  about  the  year  1400  B.C., 
was  Horemhib's  brother  (?)  His  name,  Rameses  I.,  be- 
tokens his  fidelity  to  the  old  national  form  of  worship. 

He  was  a  bold  man,  whoever  he  was,  who  dared  at 
such  a  time,  without  a  drop  of  royal  blood  in  his  veins, 
to  assume  the  sovereignty  of  a  land,  troubled  by  the 
as  yet  unhealed  division  between  the  worshippers,  and 
threatened  with  invasion  from  a  power — the  precursor 
in  might  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon — that  with  its 
confederacy  of  128  cities  (whose  names  are  preserved 
to  us  in  the  list  of  the  victories  of  Thothmes  III.  at 
Karnak)  was  growing  in  the  north  under  the  title  of 
the  Khita,  or  Hittites. 

But  this  protector  of  the  Egyptian  reformation, 
Rameses  I.,  had,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  sculpture  of 
his  solemn  coronation  on  the  entrance  gates  of  the 
Temple  of  Karnak,  at  any  rate  the  goodwill  of  the 
priestly  party  at  Thebes. 

And  though  his  reign  was  short,  he  went  to  war  with 
the  Hittites,  and  made,  what  was  of  the  utmost  moment 
for  the  safety  of  Egypt  and  the  restoration  of  peace 
and  commerce,  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
with  Saplel  or  Saprer,  the  Hittite  king. 

We  have  all  heard  a  good  deal  ofWady  Haifa 
during  this  late  Soudanese  campaign.  At  Wady 
Haifa,  then  called  Behani,  in  the  second  year  of 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH   THE   GREAT     117 

the  warrior  Rameses  I.'s  reign,  the  king  built  a 
stone  house  for  the  temple  of  his  divine  father  Hor 
Khem — the  sun,  that  is,  as  he  rises  and  sets — and  it 
was  filled  with  men  and  maidens  from  the  tribesmen 
that  he  conquered.  The  Soudanese,  whom  he  led  in 
bonds,  were  there  set  to  minister  to  the  honour  of  the 
god,  whom  Rameses,  and  nobody  but  Rameses  the 
conqueror,  dared  to  call  "  his  divine  father." 

Short  was  the  reign  of  Rameses  I.,  but  before  he 
entered  his  eternal  house — the  rock  chamber  that  is 
with  us  to  this  day,  the  oldest  in  the  Valley  of  the  Kings, 
at  Thebes, — he  had  had  the  foreknowledge  to  realise 
that  what  the  Egyptian  nobles  and  the  Egyptian  priests 
cared  for,  next  to  peace  from  their  enemies,  was  blue 
blood  in  the  veins  of  their  kings.  And  it  is  probable 
that  he  induced  his  son  Seti  to  look  to  it  that  he 
should  wed,  if  possible,  a  princess  of  the  late  royal 
line  that  ceased  to  be  a  ruling  line  wbrn  Horus,  or 
Horemhib,  died. 

Now,  there  was  a  daughter  of  that  beautiful  queen, 
Taia,  wife  of  Amenophis  III.  She  it  was,  you  re- 
member, who  brought  the  sun-disk  worship  into  the 
land,  from  Mesopotamia.  Royal  blood  on  both  sides 
was  in  this  lady's  veins,  for  Taia  was  a  princess  in  her 
own  right,  of  Naharaina,  the  land  of  the  rivers  to  the 
north ;  and  on  the  monuments  she  is  spoken  of  as 
"  the  marvel,  the  daughter  of  the  chief  of  Naharaina — 
the  great  royal  lady — Tii,  the  living  one." 


n8  NOTES   FOR   THE  NILE 

This  princess's  sister  had  married  the  heretic,  Khu- 
en-Aten,  and  one  would  have  thought  that  Seti  I. 
would  have  never  looked  that  way;  but  Seti  was 
determined  to  bring  back  royalty  into  the  ruling  line. 
If  he  was  a  commoner,  his  son  should  be  royal,  or  at 
least  on  his  mother's  side ;  and  as  for  the  priestly 
caste,  had  he  not  shown,  and  had  not  his  father, 
Rameses  I.,  given  proof,  that  Amen  Ra,  and  not  Aten 
— the  sun  and  not  its  disk — was  the  object  of  his 
worship  and  his  reverential  care. 

Tuaa,  the  princess  whom  Seti  wooed,  must  have 
been  very  beautiful — not  so  sprightly  and  full  of  delicate 
vivacity  as  was  her  mother  Taia,  if  we  may  judge  by 
comparing  the  profiles  of  the  mother  and  daughter 
that  are  preserved  to  us  ;  but  the  more  Egyptian 
type  of  face  was  hers,  and  she  bequeathed  it,  as  we 
know,  to  Rameses  the  Great. 

But  how  came  it  about  that  she,  Tuaa,  the  daughter 
of  Taia — whether  Tartar  or  Chaldean,  Assyrian  or 
pre-Canaanite,  we  cannot  say — should  have  looked  on 
Seti  with  favour,  and  given  him  her  heart  and  hand  ? 

We  are  in  the  land  of  conjecture,  but  this  much  is 
certain,  Seti's  very  name  shows  that  he  was  allied,  by 
family  tradition,  with  that  strange  race  of  shepherd 
kings,  the  Hyksos,  who  for  about  400  years  had 
possessed  themselves  of  the  Delta,  and  reigned  at  Zoan 
and  Avaris.  They  worshipped  Set,  or  Sutek,  the 
Typhonic  spirit  of  war  and  might  and  evil,  often,  how- 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  119 

ever,  invoked  as  the  beneficent  god  under  the  name 
of  Set-Nub,  or  the  Golden  Set,  and  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether,  for  all  their  hate  against  their  false  worship, 
the  Egyptians  bore  such  animus  against  their  shep- 
herd kings  personally,  as  Manetho  would  have  us  to 
suppose. 

Now,  wherever  these  strange  shepherd  kings,  who 
knew  Joseph  and  welcomed  him  to  honour,  came 
from,  and  whether  Chaldean  or  Assyrian,  Turanian  or 
Semitic,  in  type  of  face,  matters  not.  This  much  is 
certain,  that  Seti's  family  had  tender  leanings  of 
tradition,  perhaps  of  blood,  towards  their  memory ; 
for  we  find  on  a  celebrated  stone  tablet  of  syenitic 
granite,  found  at  Zoan  by  Mariette  Bey,  a  picture  of 
Rameses  the  Great,  Seti's  son,  offering  wine  to  the 
god  Set,  the  old  national  deity  of  the  shepherd  kings, 
and  this  in  honour  of  his  father  Seti's  memory.  The 
god  is  wearing  the  white  crown,  and  holds  the  key  of 
life  in  his  right  hand,  and  in  his  left,  the  shepherd's 
staffer  crook  of  office. 

This  tablet  is  put  up  by  a  high  officer  of  the  court 
of  Rameses  II.,  and  he  tells  us  :  "  His  Majesty  has 
ordered  it  to  be  set  up  for  the  great  name  of  his 
father,  for  the  sake  of  setting  up  the  name  of  the  father 
of  his  father,  from  his  parent  Seti  to  the  King  Set, 
Aahpeppeh,  Nubti,  or  Apophis,  400  years  before." 

"  Hail  to  thee,  Set,  son  of  Nut,  Aahpeppeh,  in  the 
boat  of  millions  of  years,  overthrowing  enemies  before 


120  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  boat  of  the  sun."  So  concludes  the  officer's 
prayer  on  this  important  "  tablet  of  the  400  years." 

Here  is  evidence,  little  expected,  to  make  us  guess 
that  Seti  I.  was  not  Egyptian  proper,  but  was,  as  his 
name  implied,  kin  to  the  far-off  shepherd  kings.  And 
herein  was  probably  the  secret  of  the  willingness  of 
Tuaa,  daughter  of  Taia  the  Mesopotamian,  to  wed 
with  Seti,  and  bring  back  royal  blood  to  the  throne  of 
Thebes. 

Hard  by  that  tablet  at  Zoan,  has  been  unearthed  the 
Hyksos  sphinx,  with  its  name  "  Suteck,  the  beneficent 
god,  the  presiding  deity,"  graven  upon  its  head. 
And  those  who  look  upon  that  portrait  of  Apophis, 
the  Pharaoh  of  Joseph's  time,  and  then  gaze  upon  the 
face  of  Tuaa  and  Seti  I.,  the  parents  of  Rameses 
II.  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  will  find  it  easy  enough 
to  see  a  marked  similarity,  in  racial  cast  of  counte- 
nance, to  the  Hyksos  sphinx  of  Zoan,  and  a  marked 
unlikeness  to  such  Egyptian  types  as  are  found  on 
the  sphinxes  of  an  earlier  day. 

For  the  Egyptian  sphinx  proper,  with  its  head-dress 
of  spreading  hawk  wings,  wears  always  a  smile  upon 
its  rounded  face  ;  its  eyes  are  wide  apart  and  open 
wide.  The  sphinx  of  Zoan,  the  shepherd  king 
sphinx,  with  the  type  of  Seti  and  Rameses  II. 's  face 
upon  it,  has  eyes  nearer,  chin  more  projecting,  more 
strong,  cheek-bones  prominent,  and  a  mouth  that  falls 
at  the  corners ;  nor  ever  does  it  wear  the  wing- 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT      121 

shaped  wig,  except  where,  as  is  the  case  in  one 
instance,  the  Pharaoh  Rameses  has  sculptured  the 
flowing  head-dress  of  the  shepherd  king  into  the  wing- 
shaped  wig  of  his  own  time. 

I  have  said  enough  to  show  that  there  was  probably 
a  family  tradition,  as  well  as,  perhaps,  an  under-current 
of  religious  feeling,  that  brought  about  the  happy 
match  between  Seti  I.  and  Tuaa,  the  princess. 

The  son  born  of  that  union  was  Pharaoh  the  Great, 
and  the  world  has  never  forgotten,  and  never  can  for- 
get, the  issue  of  that  wooing  and  that  wedding. 

Seti  was  likely  at  once  to  feel  the  power  of  having 
brought  in  royalty  to  rule  with  him.  The  people  of 
the  Delta,  who  had  always  remembered  the  beneficent 
rule  of  the  shepherd  kings,  would  be  with  him.  They 
knew  his  name.  The  priests  of  the  people  at  Thebes 
would  be  with  him,  for  he  cared  for  ancient  This,  near 
Abydos,  where  Osiris'  head  was  buried,  and  took  the 
name  of  Osirimenepthah ;  while  it  is  clear  that  the 
crown  name  Meneptah,  "  Favourite  of  Vulcan  the 
Creator,"  and  his  deeds  of  honour  and  restoration  at 
Memphis,  the  home  of  that  god,  would  win  him  hearts 
in  that  old  white-walled  city,  by  Sakkara's  palms  and 
pyramids. 

The  Israelites,  who  had  fared  well  under  the  shep- 
herd kings,  possibly  because  of  their  common  Chal- 
dean origin,  may  have  suffered  somewhat  under  the 
kings  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  but  they  do  not 


122  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

appear  to  have  been  in  any  way  molested  by  Seti  and 
his  Queen  Tuaa,  perhaps  for  a  like  reason.  It  was  not 
till  the  great  building  period  set  in  at  Zoan,  under 
Seti's  son,  Rameses  the  Great,  that  their  lives  were 
made  bitter  in  the  brickfields. 

On  the  contrary,  Seti  I.  seems  at  once  to  have 
felt  that  the  land  where  the  Hebrews  dwelt,  needed 
protection. 

The  Shashu,  or  Arabs,  had,  partly  owing  to  the 
national  dissensions  of  Egypt  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty,  and  partly  to  Rameses  I.'s  weakish 
reign,  partly  to  the  long  duration  of  peace  and  lack  of 
hostile  demonstrations  between  1400  and  1366,  deter- 
mined to  press  up  on  to  the  eastern  frontier  of  Egypt, 
and  "  find  sustenance  for  themselves  and  cattle  in  the 
possessions  of  Pharaoh." 

The  Hebrews  were  no  fighters ;  the  green  fields  of 
bersim,  clover,  and  lentils  were  laid  waste,  and  a  good 
deal  of  cattle-lifting  went  on. 

Seti  knew  that  successful  war  was  one  of  the  ways 
to  establish  himself  in  the  hearts  of  his  people,  and 
with  all  the  keen  fighting  blood  of  the  vigorous  north- 
eastern in  his  composition,  and  with  his  Queen  Tuaa's 
goodwill,  he  determined  to  make  a  clean  sweep  of 
these  Shashu,  or  Bedouins,  from  the  Delta,  and  so  win 
honour  for  Egypt,  and  gain  the  thanks  of  the  Hebrew 
farmers  into  the  bargain. 

We  have  an  elaborate  picture-history  of  these  wars 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  123 

of  Seti,  preserved  to  us  upon  the  outer  wall  at  the 
north  side  of  the  great  hall  at  Karnak. 

We  shall  speak  of  that  great  hall  later  on;  it  is 
enough  for  us  to  know  that  six  pictures,  ranged  in  a 
series,  give  us  the  principal  events  of  this  campaign 
against  the  Bedouins.  We  can,  by  means  of  these, 
trace  the  line  of  march  from  Etham  to  Migdol  and 
Baalzephon  as  far  as  Rehoboth,  south  of  Beersheba, 
and  up  Wady  Arabah,  as  far  as  the  hill  frontiers  of 
Kanaan,  somewhere  near  the  Dead  Sea. 

The  Bedouin  country  of  Sinai  and  Edom,  up  to  the 
borders  of  Philistia  or  Zalu,  was  won  and  occupied. 
The  first  victory  at  the  fortress  of  Kanaan  is  thus 
described : 

"  In  the  first  year  of  King  Seti— this  is  1366  B.C. — 
there  took  place,  by  the  strong  arm  of  Pharaoh,  the 
annihilation  of  the  hostile  Shashu  from  the  fortresses 

of  Khetan,  of  the  land  of  Zalu  as  far  as  Kanaan 

The  king  was  against  them  as  a  fierce  lion.  They 
were  turned  into  a  heap  of  corpses  in  their  hill 
country.  They  lay  there  in  their  blood.  Not  one 
escaped  to  tell  of  his  strength  to  the  distant  nations." 

When  I  passed  over  the  plain  of  El  Kuwerah,  east 
of  the  Wady  Arabah,  and  saw  the  bullets  and  cannon- 
balls  that  told  of  the  victory  of  Abbas  Pasha  against 
the  Bedouins  of  this  century,  I  could  not  but,  in  heart, 
go  back  to  that  far-off  battle-day,  more  than  3200 
years  ago,  when  the  Shashu  lay  there  in  their  blood, 


I24  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  think  of  the  curse  of  every  man's  hand  against  the 
wandering  Arabs,  that  had  lain  heavy  upon  these 
children  of  the  desert  all  down  the  pitiless  centuries. 

The  Bedouins,  discomfited  and  decimated,  were 
still  not  disheartened.  They  made  a  stand  in  the  land 
of  the  Kharu,  or  Phoenicians  ;  but  Seti,  in  his  chariot 
of  war,  whose  pair  of  horses  was  called  "  Ammon 
gives  him  Strength,"  dashed  into  their  ranks  and  utterly 
routed  them. 

From  Jamnia's  bloody  field  King  Seti  went  to  the 
interior,  and  overthrew  the  villages  of  the  North 
Syrians,  known  by  the  name  of  the  Rutennu,  fair- 
faced  men  with  blue  eyes  and  red  pointed  beards,  who 
wore  thick  u-nder-garments,  and  sleeves  to  their  coats, 
showing  us  that  they  were,  by  origin,  dwellers  in  a 
colder  country  than  the  Rutennu  of  their  own  day. 

The  battle-picture  shows  us,  in  this  first  year  of 
Seti's  reign,  a  little  boy  fighting  in  the  war-chariot  at 
his  father's  side.  That  little  boy  grew  up  to  be 
Rameses  II.  the  Great,  the  warrior  monarch  of  the  sixty- 
seven  years  of  wondrous  history.  He  learned  stern  busi- 
ness in  war  early,  and  there  was  a  reason  in  his  early 
education.  Seti  had  determined  that  the  son  of  his 
loins,  who  should  bring  back  royal  blood  to  the 
throne,  should  also  bring  to  the  throne  a  heart  that 
delighted  to  "  wash  itself  in  the  blood  of  his  enemies." 
Like  father  like  son.  And  here,  in  the  Rutennu  cam- 
paign, we  read  of  how,  "  borne  through  the  land  by  his 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  125 

pair  of  horses,  named '  Big  with  Victory,'  Seti's  joy  is  to 
undertake  the  battle,  his  delight  is  to  dash  into  it." 
"  His  heart  is  only  satisfied  at  sight  of  the  stream  of 
blood,  when  he  strikes  off  the  heads  of  his  enemies — a 
moment  of  the  struggle  of  men  is  dearer  to  him  than 
a  day  of  pleasure."  This  is  all  of  a  piece  with  Seti's 
non-Egyptian  parentage.  The  Egyptian  proper  was 
not  cruel  or  bloodthirsty.  One  feels  in  the  presence, 
rather,  of  men  of  the  Assyrian  type  of  character, 
monsters  of  Nineveh  and  bulls  of  Babylonj  as  one 
reads. 

Another  war-picture  changes  the  scene.  Seti  has 
made  a  swift  attack  on  Kadesh,  the  key  of  the  North. 
"  His  war-chariot  surprises  the  herdsmen  in  the  fields ; 
his  arms  are  very  sharp."  They  slay  the  warriors  as 
they  sally  from  their  citadel,  and  Kadesh  is  won. 

There — where  in  later  times  the  little  Rameses, 
grown  to  be  the  Great,  won  such  glory  by  his  facing  fear- 
ful odds  in  the  single-handed  battle,  when  "  even  his 
captains  had  deserted  him,  and  he  was  all  alone,  and 
none  other  were  with  him  " — there  was  an  assault  and 
sally,  repulse  and  victory.  But  Seti's  campaign  was 
not  at  an  end.  Away  north  of  this  Kadesh,  by  the 
Orontes  stream,  lay  the  powers  that  were  the  fore- 
runners of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  called  in  that  day 
"  The  Great  People."  Two  distinct  races  of  men 
their  monuments  show  them  to  have  been,  if  we  may 
trust  their  dress  and  manner  of  arms.  They  were  the 


126  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Khitan  Hittites.  Mauthanar,  the  Khitan  king,  who 
had  made  a  treaty,  had  broken  it,  and  against  the 
well-ordered  hosts  of  the  beardless,  red-skinned  men 
of  Khita,  Seti  advanced. 

"These  are  the  miserable  Hittites;  the  king  has 
proposed  for  them  a  great  overthrow,"  says  the  in- 
scription in  the  hall  of  Karnak ;  and  then  the  psalm  of 
triumph  bursts  forth,  and  Seti  is  described  as  "  like  to 
a  jackal  leaping  through  the  land,  a  grim  lion  in 
ambush,  a  powerful  bull  with  a  pair  of  sharpened 
horns." 

It  is  pretty  clear  that,  after  the  battle,  peace  on 
honourable  terms  was  concluded.  "  His  war-cry  was 
like  to  the  war-cry  of  Baal  Sutek"  (a  hint  here  of 
Seti's  Hyksos  descent) ;  but  "  the  enmity  of  all 
peoples  was  turned  to  friendship,"  and  so  King  Seti 
set  his  face  to  the  South. 

When  I  stood,  a  few  years  since,  beneath  the  last 
remnants  of  the  ancient  grove  of  Lebanon,  I  seemed 
to  hear,  not  only  the  axes  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  ring  out 
for  Solomon's  Temple,  but  also  the  axes  of  the  men 
of  Zor,  whom  Seti  had  conquered,  merrily  chopping 
away  at  the  goodly  cedar  trees  for  Seti  I.  and  his 
triumphant  army,  and  I  knew  how,  on  the  Karnak 
temple-walls,  was  a  picture  of  the  men  of  Kanaan  and 
the  mountaineers  of  Lebanon  at  work  at  the  highest 
and  straightest  trees,  and  that  an  inscription,  Brugsch 
Bey  has  restored,  described  the  scene  : 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH  THE.  GREAT      127 

"  The  inhabitants  of  Limanun  fell  the  trees  fora 
great  ship  on  the  river  in  Thebes  of  the  South,  and 
in  like  manner  for  King  Seti's  high  masts  at  Amon's 
temple  in  Thebes." 

It  was  a  glorious  return  the  conqueror  accom- 
plished. Priests  and  nobles  met  him  at  the  border 
fortress-city  of  Etham,  and  gave  King  Seti  goodly 
welcome  home.  "  Thou  hast  triumphed  over  thine 
enemies,"  they  sang ;  "  may  thy  life  as  king,  be  long 
as  the  sun  of  heaven." 

All  questions  of  royal  right  divine  were  now  set  at 
rest.  The  little  Rameses,  Seti's  son,  was  ever,  in 
future,  at  his  father's  side ;  and  though  not  yet  asso- 
ciated with  him  on  the  throne,  he  goes  again  with  his 
father  Seti  to  the  war.  This  time  the  enemy  are  the 
light-skinned,  fair-headed  peoples  who  dwell  by  the 
Mediterranean  Sea — the  Marmorid?e,  the  Greeks,  and 
Lydians,  and  the  Libyans  to  the  west,  who  wore  the 
double  ostrich  plume  and  the  side  locks  of  hair. 

On  the  north  wall  of  Karnak,  Seti  is  seen  in  his 
chariot,  whereof  the  horses  were  called  "  Victorious  is 
Amon."  Seti  has  pierced  one  of  the  "  Thuhennu  " 
warriors  with  an  arrow,  of  a  cloth-yard  long,  and,  chang- 
ing his  bow  to  his  left  hand,  he  has  lifted  his  battle-axe 
to  cleave  his  enemy  to  the  chin.  Ten  of  the  foe  have 
fallen  beneath  the  hoofs  of  prancing  and  plume- 
headed  horses.  The  inscription  tells  us,  "  he  utterly 
destroyed  them  as  they  stood  upon  the  battle-field. 


128  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

They  could  not  hold  their  bows,  and  remained  hidden 
in  their  caves  for  fear  of  the  king." 

A  second  return  home  in  triumph  is  celebrated. 
The  Temple  of  Amon  in  Thebes  has  its  coffers  filled 
with  all  manner  of  spoil — exquisite  golden  drinking- 
cups,  with  handles  in  shape  of  animal  heads,  telling 
us  of  the  artistic  handicraft  of  the  jewellers  of  those 
old  days,  thirty-two  centuries  and  a  half  ago ;  but 
though  the  songs  of  the  priests  of  the  Temple  of  Amon 
are  in  our  ears — before  the  great  Seti,  saying,  "  Hail 
to  thee,  King  of  Egypt !  Happy  is  the  people  subject 
to  thy  will.  But  he  who  o'ersteppeth  thy  boundaries 
shall  appear  led  as  a  prisoner  in  chains  " — we  can- 
not help  noting  how,  though  the  dedication  of  all  this 
spoil  to  Amon  and  his  wife  Nut,  and  their  young  son, 
Khonsu,  or  the  Moon,  went  gloriously  forward  with 
aid  of  sistrum  and  harp,  the  central  figure  of  all  that 
joy,  was  the  little  son  and  heir,  "the  pillar  of  a 
people's  hope,"  the  idol  of  his  mother  Tuaa,  the 
queen. 

In  a  small  Nubian  temple  there  is  a  sculpture  of 
Queen  Tuaa,  receiving  her  well-beloved  darling,  on 
his  return  from  his  second  campaign  ;  and  it  is  not 
out  of  place  here  to  observe  that,  as  we  learn  from  the 
great  historical  inscription  of  Abydos,  there  was  a 
parental  pride  in  the  boy  which,  apart  from  political 
considerations,  made  Seti  care  for  the  lad's  com- 
panionship. 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  129 

"  I  desire,"  said  Seti,  "  to  behold  his  grandeur 
while  I  am  yet  alive.  I  will  have  him  crowned  as 
king.  Place  the  regal  circlet  on  his  brow." 

"Thus  spake  he,"  wrote,  in  after-time,  Rameses, 
"with  good  intention  in  his  very  great  love  of  me. 
Still  he  left  me  in  the  court  of  the  women,  and 
chose  me  attendant  maidens  who  wore  a  harness  of 
leather." 

Whether  the  actual  crowning  of  Rameses,  the  son, 
took  place  at  this  return  from  the  Libyan  campaign  in 
triumph,  we  know  not ;  but  it  is  certain  that  from 
that  time  forward,  while  the  boy  still  wore  the  youth's 
lock  of  hair,  he  seems  to  have  been,  in  the  eyes  of  all 
the  people,  a  central  figure  on  public  occasions,  a  kind 
of  co-regent  with  his  father,  the  darling  of  his  mother, 
and  chief  delight  of  Seti  the  king. 

But  not  only  were  success  in  war,  and  the  re-esta- 
blishment of  the  temples  in  Thebes,  and  the  setting 
up  of  cedar  masts  upon  the  propylons,  necessary  to 
insure  to  Seti  that  which  his  soul  desired — namely,  the 
full  establishment  of  his  kingship  in  the  hearts  of 
peasants  and  people  ;  Mammon,  as  well  as  Ammon, 
was  to  be  cared  for ;  temples  and  public  works  needed 
gold  for  the  wages  of  the  workmen  ;  and  now  in  the 
ninth  year  of  his  reign,  we  learn  from  a  sandstone 
tablet  on  the  walls  of  a  rock-temple  at  Wady  Alaki, 
how  that  "  the  king's  heart  wished  to  see  the  mines 
from  whence  the  gold  is  brought,"  and  how,  on  the  2oth 


130  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

day  of  October,  Seti  undertook  an  expedition,  by  the 
old  merchants'  road,  from  Coptos  through  the  desert 
called  "  the  land  of  the  gods,"  east  of  the  Nile, 
opposite  Edfu,  towards  Berenice,  to  visit  and  inspect 
the  gold  mines,  and  see  what  could  be  done  to  supply  a 
waterless  road,  with  wells  for  caravans,  and  the  gold- 
washers,  with  means  of  prosecuting  their  industry. 

The  inscription  tells  us  "  that  Seti  made  a  halt,  and 
determined  to  wipe  out  reproach  from  the  place  where 
aforetime  men  cried  out,  overtaken  with  thirst,  '  Land 
of  perdition  ! ' " 

"  He  had  the  well  bored  for  them.  Thus  did  King 
Seti  do  a  good  work — the  beneficent  dispenser  of 
water,  who  prolongs  life  for  his  people." 

"  The  difficult  road  is  opened  up.  The  gold  can 
now  be  carried  up.  May  the  king  flourish  like  Horus, 
because  he  has  founded  a  memorial  in  the  land  of  the 
gods — the  desert ;  because  he  has  bored  for  water  in 
the  mountains." 

Ani,  the  king's  son,  of  Kush,  the  chief  architect,  has 
left  no  record  to  tell  us  of  the  success  of  the  gold 
mining  and  waterworks  undertaking ;  but  we  read  how 
"  the  water  flowed  from  the  rock  in  great  abundance, 
like  the  waters  of  the  Nile  at  Abu,"  and  we  also  hear 
how  the  king  Seti  ascribed  his  success  to  Heaven,  and 
said : 

"  The  god  has  heard  my  prayer.  The  water  has  come 
forth  in  abundance,  the  road  that  had  no  water  has 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  131 

been  made  good  under  my  rule.     The  shepherds  shall 
have  pasture  for  their  flocks." 

Nor  was  it  only  those  shepherds  in  the  desert  of 
Redesieh  for  whom  Seti  had  a  father's  care.  He  appears 
to  have  had  a  hand  in  carrying  out  the  building  of  a 
great  wall,  like  the  wall  of  the  Romans  across  our  own 
England,  which  should  stretch  from  Heliopolis,  the  City 
of  the  Sun,  where  Moses  grew  up  to  manhood,  right 
to  Pelusium,  the  Port  Said  of  to-day,  for  the  better 
protection  of  the  shepherds  in  the  plain,  from  Asiatic 
or  Arab  invasion. 

One  can  never  enter  the  Porta  de  Popolo  of  Rome, 
or  stand  at  Trinita  da  Monti,  without  remembering 
that  the  obelisks  that  stand  there,  were  set  up  at  the 
City  of  the  Sun,  to  the  honour  of  the  wall-builder  who 
cared  for  the  herdsmen  of  the  Delta. 

And  Seti  evidently  was  an  agriculturist  and  a 
believer  in  commerce.  He  determined  to  bring 
sweet  water  and  find  a  water-way  for  the  farm  produce 
of  his  people,  and  he  constructed,  it  is  believed,  the 
first  great  canal  that  joined  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea.* 

We  have  seen  the  father  of  Pharaoh  the  Great 
now  in  his  capacity  of  warrior  and  of  gold-digger. 

*  A  picture  of  this  canal  is  preserved  to  us  on  the  exterior 
north  wall  of  Karnak.  Seti  I.  is  represented  in  his  chariot, 
driving  three  strings  of  prisoners  of  war  before  him,  and  just 
about  to  cross  it.  (See  Ebers's  "Egypt  Illustrated,"  pt. ii.  p.  21.) 


132  VOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 

It  remains  for  us  to  note  his  pre-eminence  as  temple 
and  tomb-builder. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  temples  were  of 
two  kinds  :  partly  memorial  temples,  which  should 
embalm,  as  it  were,  the  memory  of  the  great  dead ; 
these  were,  for  the  most  part,  built  on  the  western 
side  of  the  river,  for  the  sun  sank  in  the  west,  and  the 
great  dead  had  gone  down  the  dark  way  after  him. 
Partly  temples  that  were  raised  as  acts  of  piety  to  the 
gods — Ammon,  the  male  god;  Mout  or  Mut,  the 
woman  god  ;  and  Khons,  the  son. 

Sometimes  the  memorial  temple,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  Memnonium  of  Seti  at  Kurnah,  embraced  both 
ends. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  temples  to  the 
gods,  the  great  national  sanctuaries,  were  not  meant 
for  congregational  use  or  public  services.  They  were 
huge  secret  hiding-places  of  the  treasure  dedicated  to 
the  god,  and  retired  Holies  of  Holies,  wherein  the 
god  himself  should  rest,  and  be  approached  with 
honour  by  his  children  on  earth,  the  kings  and 
queens  of  the  reigning  dynasty.  The  people  seldom 
saw  beyond  the  outer  gate.  The  priests  seldom 
issued  from  it,  except  to  go  backward  and  forward  to 
their  houses,  or  to  take  part  in  some  national  thanks- 
giving or  royal  burial. 

But  since  secrecy  for  treasure  and  sanctity  for  the 
god,  were  needed,  these  huge  temple  prisons  were 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT    133 

surrounded  with  wall  after  wall,  so  arranged  as  not  to 
prevent  the  line  or  "  dromos  "  of  sphinxes,  and  obelisks, 
and  colossi  running  directly  from  outside,  right 
through  all  the  courts,  beneath  the  vast  towered  gates 
in  the  various  enclosing  walls,  up  to  the  sanctuary. 

It  is  true  that  the  priestly  ritual,  quite  apart  from 
congregational  purposes,  needed  ample  space  for  its 
processions,  and  we  find  that  most  of  the  temples 
were  so  arranged  as  to  admit  of  there  being  endless 
corridors  and  pillared  courtyards,  open  to  the  sun 
or  closed  from  its  rays. 

Approaching  by  the  sphinx  avenue,  and  entering 
through  a  thirty-five  feet  "vallum  "  of  mud-brick,  one 
passed  beneath  the  pylons,  or  tower  gates,  perhaps  as 
much  as  120  feet  high,  as  at  Edfu,  with  their  cedar 
masts  on  either  side,  to  an  inner  ward,  beneath  other 
gates  less  high  ;  thence  into  the  peristyle  court,  a 
court  where  the  people  were  perhaps  allowed  to 
gather  at  times,  where  the  priests  took  air  and 
exercise.  Thence  we  should  have  entered  between 
two  great  obelisks,  or  colossi,  into  the  really  important 
hall  for  religious  service,  called  the  hypostyle  hall, 
shut  in  from  the  sun  by  great  slabs  of  stone,  gilt  with 
stars,  and  painted  or  enamelled  blue,  resting  upon 
stone  beams,  and  these  in  turn  upon  a  forest  of  pillars ; 
the  light  arranged  for,  by  the  lifting  up  of  a  central 
portion  of  the  roof,  and  admitting  thus  of  clerestory 
windows. 


134  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Beyond  this  hall  of  columns,  when  we  had  got 
used  to  the  comparative  dusk,  we  should  have  seen 
the  sanctuary,  where  the  god,  in  a  separate  sanctum, 
in  a  monolithic  shrine,  dwelt  in  darkness  and  mystery ; 
and  round  that  little  shrine  were  gathered  retiring- 
rooms  for  the  priests  and  artificers  who  attended  to 
the  sacrifices,  dressing-rooms,  store-chambers,  side- 
chapels,  &c. ;  and  beneath,  in  vast  crypts  and  vaults, 
lay  concealed  the  temple  treasures.  A  huge  bath  or 
tank  within  the  temple  area,  called  the  "  Sacred  Lake 
of  the  Sun" — for  the  purposes  of  ritual  when  the 
golden  bark  of  the  sun  was  launched  upon  it — com- 
pleted the  temple  furnishing. 

But  what  must  have  struck  one  most,  if  one  had 
entered  the  temple  enclosure,  was  the  fact  that  from 
floor  to  roof  of  the  hypostyle,  or  the  hall  of  columns, 
from  ground  to  cornice  of  the  peristyle  colonnade,  or 
courtyard  walls,  from  base  to  summit  of  the  towering 
pylons,  colour  and  rich  engraved  sculpture,  in  low 
relief  and  deep  incised  beauty  of  decoration,  occupied 
all  the  available  space.  Differing  evidently  in  age 
and  worth  of  execution,  but  constantly  repeating  the 
same  motive  of  ornament,  the  same  pictures  of  battle 
and  leading  of  captives  in  triumph,  and  the  same 
pictures  of  offering  by  the  king,  at  the  shrine  of  the  god 
or  goddess,  costly  oblations,  with  prayer  for  good  luck. 

The  fact  is,  that  each  king  in  each  dynasty  had  a 
hand  in  adding,  court  by  court,  to  the  shrine  of  the 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  135 

national  deities  ;   each  vying  in  splendour  of  decora- 
tion or  size  in  building, 

And  since  the  whole  act  of  building  these  halls  to  the 
god,  was  an  act  of  sacrifice  or  adoration,  it  was  fitting 
that  each  victory,  or  each  deed  of  prowess,  by  which 
the  king  had  obtained  honour  and  glory,  should  be 
depicted,  not  only  as  a  memorial  of  proud  honour,  but 
as  an  act  of  dedication — a  public  declaration  that  all 
these  things  came  by  the  will  of  the  god,  and  were  a 
public  acknowledgment  of  hearty  thanks  for  heavenly 
favours. 

Seti  I.  may  have  had  within  him  something  of  the 
power  to  build,  that  actuated  the  later  men  of  Babylon 
and  Nineveh.  His  Hyksos  blood,  if  it  had  the 
Assyrian  life  within  it,  cared  much  to  make  the  might 
of  his  name  be  known  by  the  might  of  his  hands,  as 
architect.  He  added  "splendid  buildings"  to  the 
temples  at  Memphis  and  Heliopolis,  but  the  buildings 
that  remain  to  us,  most  notably  his,  are  the  temple  of 
Osiris  in  the  desert  of  Abydos  ;  the  Memnonium  of 
Seti  at  old  Gurnah,  or  Kurnah,  on  the  western  side  of 
the  river  at  Thebes  ;  the  great  hall  of  columns  at 
Api,  or  as  it  is  better  known,  Karnak,  on  the  eastern 
bank  of  the  Nile  at  Thebes,  just  opposite  ;  and  the 
beautiful  tomb  he  wrought  for  himself  in  the  Valley  of 
the  Kings,  known  to-day  as  Belzoni's  tomb. 

Let  us  visit  them  all,  omitting,  as  being  of  less  im- 
portance, one  minor  temple  we  had  almost  forgotten 


136  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

to  mention,  a  temple  to  Seckhet  Bast,  or  Pasht,  the 
cat -headed  or  lion-headed  goddess  offeree  and  passion, 
away  at  Beni  Hasan. 

At  Abydos,  Seti  determined  to  put  himself  beyond 
the  reproaches  of  heresy  which  his  name  Set  might 
imply,  by  raising  a  temple  to  Osiris,  somewhere  near 
the  mound  where  fable  had  it,  that  the  head  of  the 
just  and  light-giving  Osiris  had  been  found,  after 
Typhon,  the  spirit  of  darkness  and  of  evil,  had  hewed 
his  body  in  pieces,  and  it  had  been  discovered  and 
buried  by  Isis,  his  queen. 

The  Egyptian's  hope  of  immortality,  and  his  faith  in 
the  power  of  good  over  evil,  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of 
the  spirit  over  the  material,  was  symbolised  by  this 
myth  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  ;  though,  as  for  the 
tales  of  these  legends  being,  as  some  aver,  on  a  parallel 
with,  or  even  a  prefiguring  of,  the  death  and  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  very  little  truth  in  them. 
But  to  the  Egyptian  the  fight  of  light  and  right 
against  darkness  and  wrong,  was  a  constantly  recurring 
thought,  a  faith  re-born  with  every  rising  sun  ;  and  so 
by  the  mound  of  Kom  es  Sultan,  where  the  pious 
Egyptian  and  orthodox  believers  were  buried,  century 
after  century,  in  hope  of  a  joyous  resurrection,  Seti 
determined  to  raise  a  temple  to  Osiris  the  good. 

It  was  an  age  of  transition  in  architecture.  Seti  had 
his  own  views  about  it,  and  not  content  with  the 
terraced  temples  after  the  fashion  of  Hatshepset  at  Der- 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  137 

el-Bahari,  or  the  great  colonnades  of  Amenoph  III.  at 
Luxor,  he  built  here  at  Abydos  a  small  temple,  with  a 
sevenfold  avenue  of  columns  and  portals  ending  in 
seven  chapels,  whose  roofs,  walls,  and  pillars  remain 
to  us  to-day — the  wonder  of  colour-artists  and  workers 
in  stone.  There  is  nothing  better  in  Egyptian  art  of 
the  middle  empire,  nothing  more  finished  is  found  in 
the  whole  Theban  range  of  art,  than  the  decorations  of 
the  temple  to  Osiris  and  Isis,  Horus,  Ammon,  Harma- 
chis,  Ptah,  and  Seti  I.  at  Abydos ;  we  know  the  name 
of  its  architect,  "  Hi,"  and  we  realise  that  here,  art  of 
wall-chiselling  was  at  its  best.  Sakkarah  and  the 
tombs  of  Tih  and  Ptahhotep  are  not  able  to  show 
finer  work.  The  temple  is  interesting  as  containing 
on  the  north  wall  of  the  inner  court,  a  figure  of  Seti 
offering  a  little  statue  of  the  goddess  of  truth  to 
the  seated  Osiris :  this  picture  is  so  famous  I  will 
describe  it.  Seti  is  seen  in  full  profile,  wearing  the 
pshent,  or  royal  head-dress,  with  the  Uraeus  basi- 
lisk upon  it,  and  streamers  falling  from  it  behind; 
he  is  beardless,  and  without  any  hair  upon  his  face. 
A  six-banded  necklace  is  on  his  neck,  a  triple  bracelet 
on  each  of  his  upper  arms,  and  a  double  bracelet  on 
each  of  his  wrists;  the  face  is  full  of  refinement — 
almost  feminine  in  beauty  ;  both  hands  are  noticeable 
for  length  of  fingers  and  for  their  tapering  delicacy. 

His  left  hand  is  raised  in  attitude   of  supplication ; 
his  right  hand,  though  the  draughtsman  has  twisted 


138  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

it  quite  round,  so  that  the  thumb  is  towards  the  spec- 
tator, holds  a  little  sacrificial  bowl,  and  in  the  bowl  is 
seated  a  miniature  image  of  the  goddess  of  truth  and 
justice,  "  Ma  "  by  name. 

I  wonder  if  children  in  England,  when  they  cry  to 
their  mothers,  know  that  they  are  addressing  Truth 
and  Justice  twice  over,  and  speaking  the  best  Egyptian 
possible  ? 

She — the  goddess  "  Ma" — is  kneeling  in  attitude  of  a 
suppliant,  and  one  knee  is  raised ;  upon  this  she  rests 
her  right  hand,  holding  the  "anch,"  or  crux  ansata — 
the  key  of  life.  On  her  head  she  wears  the  ostrich 
plume,  the  symbol  of  law.  The  whole  idea  of  the 
little  figure,  "  Ma  "  being  thus  offered  by  the  suppliant 
King  Seti  to  the  judge  of  the  great  under-world,  pro- 
bably centres  in  the  thought  that  the  king  is  professing 
himself  a  law-abiding  spirit  and  truthful  man,  and 
would  have  the  goddess  of  truth  and  justice  to  act  as 
mediator  between  himself  and  his  judge ;  and  we  know, 
from  the  sarcophagus  of  Seti,  how  constantly  Seti  is 
spoken  of  as  "the  truthful  one."  We  expect  he  was 
a  king  of  his  word. 

Another  celebrated  picture  represents  Seti  and  his 
son  Rameses  the  Great  taming  a  bull ;  and  in  the  cor- 
ridor close  by,  was  discovered  by  Diimichen  in  1864, 
that  history-making  tablet,  known  to  us  as  "  the  tablet 
of  Abydos,"  which  contained  the  names  of  seventy-six 
kings,  the  predecessors  of  Seti's  royal  ancestors  right 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  139 

back  to  the  half-mythical  first  Egyptian  monarch,  the 
founder  of  the  empire — Menes.  There  were  more 
than  seventy-six  monarchs,  but  the  artist  used  an 
artist's  liberty,  and  gives  us  only  the  names  of  those 
kings  considered  to  be  the  ever-living  ones,  the  kings 
of  deathless  fame.  The  list  is  specially  valuable  as 
giving  us  the  names  of  the  kings,  with  one  or  two 
exceptions,  quite  unaltered,  and  the  order  of  the  kings 
in  strict  historical  sequence,  so  far  as  the  monuments 
have  allowed  us  verification. 

On  this  important  stone-document  the  young 
Rameses  is  seen,  standing  by  his  father — for  Seti  always 
took  care,  as  has  been  before  said,  to  associate  his 
son  in  public  work  with  him,  for  a  very  good  reason — 
offering  homage  to  these  great  royal  ancestors. 

When  I  tell  you  that  it  is,  thanks  to  that  tablet  of 
Abydos,  that  we  can  get  approximately  at  the  dates  of 
Hebrew  history  in  Holy  Writ ;  thanks  to  that,  that  we 
can  learn  that  Seti  Meneptah,  Rameses  the  First's 
son,  who  came  to  the  throne  in  1366,  was  the  second 
king  of  the  nineteenth  Theban  dynasty,  we  realise  its 
worth  as  bonafide  historic  authority,  after  it  has  stood 
the  test  of  three  thousand  two  hundred  centuries  and 
a  half* 

On  the  wall  opposite  this  tablet  of  Abydos,  Rameses, 

*  A  picture  of  this  tablet  is  given  us  in  Ehers's  "Egypt 
Illustrated,"  part  ii.  p.  212. 


140  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Seti's  son,  is  seen,  under  his  father's  direction,  pouring 
libations  over  a  vase  of  flowers,  in  honour  of  the 
deities  whose  names  are  there  inscribed.  On  the  left 
of  the  entrance,  on  the  wall  to  the  south  of  the  central 
door,  is  another  notable  inscription,  telling  of  how  it 
came  to  pass  that  Rameses,  the  son  of  Seti,  finished 
the  temple  building. 

As  we  leave  the  halls  of  Abydos,  we  can  picture  to 
ourselves  the  funeral  procession  that  somewhere  about 
the  year  1333  B.C.  came  sadly  here,  across  the  rich 
plain  from  the  Nile,  to  leave  the  great  builder  Seti — 
the  swathed  and  silent  mummy  we  have  so  lately  un- 
wrapped— for  a  time  within  its  walls,  before  it  entered 
its  eternal  house  in  the  Valley  of  Kingly  Sleep,  at 
Thebes. 

Yes,  and  in  the  next  year  following,  another  proces- 
sion is  seen  approaching  the  unfinished  temple  of 
Abydos,  by  way  of  the  sacred  canal  of  Nifur. 

A  magnificent  festival  has  just  been  celebrated  at 
Thebes  in  honour  of  Amen  Ra,  and  Rameses,  "  whose 
heart,"  so  the  Abydos  inscription  tells  us,  "had  a 
tender  feeling  towards  his  parents,  has,  on  a  bright 
September  morning,  started  to  return  home."  As  the 
ships  sailed  on,  "  they  threw  their  brightness  on  the 
river,"  and  now  they  turn  aside,  and  the  canal  banks 
are  gay  with  the  multitude,  but  the  king  "  is  sad." 
For  Abydos  is  reached ;  the  columns  are  not  raised ; 
the  statues  lie  in  the  sand.  The  priests  have  appro- 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  141 

priated  the  revenue,  and  the  graves  of  the  dead  are 
forlorn.  The  chamberlains  are  called.  "  Their 
noses,"  we  read,  "  touched  the  ground  ";  and  after 
they  have  filled  the  air  with  flattery,  the  King,  Raraeses, 
speaks ; 

"The  most  beautiful  thing  to  behold,  the  best 
thing  to  hear,  is  a  child  with  a  thankful  breast,  whose 
heart  beats  for  his  father."  He  then  gives  a  history 
of  his  early  up-bringing  and  his  father  Seti's  tender 
kindness,  and  adds  :  "  I  will  renew  the  memorial  and 
clothe  the  walls  of  my  parent."  The  chamberlains 
answer :  "  Do  good  even  as  thou  wiliest.  Let  thy 
heart  be  satisfied  in  doing  what  is  right.  The  gods 
will  honour,  hereafter  in  heaven,  him  who  will  honour 
them  on  earth." 

Then  the  king  commanded,  and  gave  commission 
to  the  architects.  I  expect  "  Hi "  was  called,  and  the 
great  court  painter  "  Amen-uah-su." 

And  we  read  :  "  He  superintends  the  people  of  the 
masons  and  of  the  stone-cutters,  with  the  help  of  the 
graver,  and  the  draughtsmen,  and  all  kinds  of  artists, 
to  build  the  holy  place  for  his  father,  and  to  raise  up 
what  had  fallen  into  decay  in  the  temple  of  his  father, 
who  sojourns  among  the  deceased  ones." 

I  do  not  know,  in  Egyptian  records,  any  more  touch- 
ing prayer  than  that  of  Rameses  II.  to  his  father,  the 
Osiris-king,  Seti,  as  recorded  at  Abydos  : 

"  Awake,  raise  thy  face  to  heaven,  behold  the  sun, 


142  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

my  father  Meneptah,  thou  who  art  like  god.  Thou 
restest  in  the  deep  like  Osiris,  while  I  rule,  like  Ra, 
among  men.  Thou  hast  entered  the  realm  of  heaven, 
thou  art  joined  to  the  sun  and  the  moon.  When  the 
sun  rises,  thine  eyes  behold  his  splendour,  when  it 
sinks  on  the  earth,  thou  art  in  its  train.  But  I  obtain 
by  prayer  the  breath  of  life  at  thy  awaking,  thou 
glorious  one.  I  praise  thy  numberless  names  day  by 
day — I,  who  love  my  father,  I  will  be  guided  by  thy 
virtue.  Come,  speak  to  the  great  sun-god  Ra,  for 
me,  that  he  may  grant  me  length  of  days.  My  heart 
beats  for  thee,  and  so  long  as  I  live,  I  will  be  safeguard 
of  the  honour  of  thy  name." 

Seti,  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  so  the  inscription 
records,  appeared,  and  promised  health,  wealth,  and 
joy  to  his  loving  son,  and  in  addition,  that  which 
Rameses  most  desired,  length  and  abundance  of  days. 
We  know  that  promise  was  literally  fulfilled  :  God,  not 
Seti,  granted  the  mighty  Pharaoh  nearly  100  years 
and  a  reign  of  67  summers.  Let  us  go  from  Abydos 
to  Thebes. 

Seti  seems  ever  to  have  had  before  him  the  fact 
that  life  was  not  for  ever  here  beneath  the  sun,  and  that 
the  memory  of  man  soon  fades.  And  it  speaks  well 
for  his  filial  piety  that  he  should  have  builded,  to  per- 
petuate his  father's  memory,  a  cenotaph  which,  though 
it  is  but  ill  preserved,  allows  us  to  know  that  it  com- 
prised a  hall  behind  a  ten-columned  portico,  eight  of 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  143 

which  columns  still  stand,  and  was  approached 
through  an  avenue  of  250  feet,  between  a  double  row 
of  sphinxes.  This  building,  called  to-day  the  Memno- 
nium  of  Seti,*  was  called  in  Seti's  time  "  the  splendid 
temple-building  of  King  Meneptah  Seti  in  the  city 
of  Amon,  on  the  western  side  by  Thebes,  in  sight  of 
Api,"  as  Karnak  was  called. 

It  was  dedicated  to  Rameses  I.,  Seti's  father,  and 
to  the  gods  Osiris,  Horus,  and  Ammon.  And  there 
is  a  pathetic  inscription,  which  tells  us  how  that  Seti's 
son,  Rameses  II.,  or  Pharaoh  the  Great,  "  finished  the 
house  of  his  father,  King  Meneptah  Seti,  for  he  (Seti) 
died  and  entered  the  realm  of  heaven,  and  he  united 
himself  with  the  sun-god  in  heaven  when  this  house 
was  being  built.  The  gates  showed  a  vacant  space, 
and  all  the  walls  of  stone  and  brick  were  yet  to  be 
raised ;  all  the  work  in  it  of  writing — that  is,  hiero- 
glyphics— and  painting  was  unfinished." 

What  Rameses  did  for  Abydos  and  his  father's 
memory,  so  did  he  here,  and  in  memory  of  his  grand- 
father and  to  the  glory  of  his  father  Seti,  did  that 
well-beloved  and  well-loving  son  show  forth  the  true 
gratitude  of  a  child  who  honoured  his  "  fore-elders." 

It  speaks  volumes  for  Seti,  that  Rameses  the  Great, 
"  the  child  whose  heart  was  full  of  thanks  towards  his 
father  that  raised  him  up,"  should  do  this.  Well  had 

*  The  Temple  of  Kurnah. 


144  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  young  king  said :  "  I  will  not  neglect  my  father's 
tomb  as  children  do.  Men  shall  speak  of  me  as  a 
faithful  son,  and  shall  estimate  the  strength  of  my 
father,  in  me  his  child." 

But  Api,*  or  Karnak,  with  its  dower  of  twenty:five 
centuries  of  national  worship,  its  architects'  endeavours 
under  twenty  monarchs  and  nine  dynasties  ;  Karnak, 
made  glorious  by  kings  from  the  end  of  the  Old  empire 
of  Egypt,  2466  B.C.,  to  the  end  of  the  New,  332  B.C., 
with  memorials  from  Usertsen  I.  to  Caesar  Augustus  ; 
Karnak,  a  collection  of  eleven  temples  on  ground, 
nearly  half  a  mile  long  and  2000  feet  wide,  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  river  at  Thebes ;  Karnak — whose 
founder  was  Amenemhat  I.,  the  first  king  of  the 
twelfth  Theban  dynasty,  about  2466  B.C. — saw  the 
greatest  of  Seti's  works.  Usertsen  I.,  so  Manetho 
tells  us,  was  he  who  founded  it,  but  from  inscriptions 
discovered,  an  earlier  king  had  commenced  to  build 
there.  Karnak  had  in  Seti's  time  seen  the  vicissitudes  of 
1 100  years,  and  for  500  years  of  that  time,  during  the 
Hyksos  kings'  reign,  had  probably  remained  but  little 
cared  for.  But  Thothmes  III.,  of  the  eighteenth 
dynasty,  1600  B.C.,  had  reared  its  doors  and  towers ; 

*  The  civil  name  of  Thebes  was  Api,  or  Apiu — i.e.,  the  City 
of  Thrones  :  with  the  article  t  or  to.  prefixed,  it  became  Ta-Apiu  ; 
hence,  by  corruption,  Thebes.  Its  sacred  name  was  Nu — i.e., 
the  City  ;  or  Nu-amen— i.e.,  the  City  of  Amen,  the  No  or  No- 
amon  of  Scripture. 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  145 

his  son  Amenhotep  II.,  1566  B.C.,  had  inscribed 
its  walls  and  southern  gate.  Now,  in  the  nineteenth 
dynasty,  the  priests  of  Amroon  had  enriched  its  portals 
with  the  pictorial  scene  of  Rameses  I.'s  coronation, 
1400  B.C.  And  Seti,  Rameses'  son,  would  add  a 
further  glory,  and  eclipse  all  builders  that  had  gone 
before.  So  he  set  himself  to  rear  a  stupendous  hypo- 
style  hall,  wherein  the  priests  of  Ammon  might  perform 
their  processional  acts  of  worship,  and  wherein  the 
history  of  his  own  wars  might  be,  by  the  help  of  Hi 
and  Amen-uah-su,  pictured  forth,  as  we  have  in  the 
first  part  of  this  chapter  described. 

That  hall  of  columns  is  the  largest  in  all  Egypt : 
340  by  170  feet  (325  by  160  feet,  according  to  Brehm 
and  Dumichen),  in  length  and  breadth,  and  in  the 
centre,  80  feet  in  height,  are  figures  that  give  us  little 
idea  of  its  size  ;  but  when  one  adds  that  the  whole  of 
Notre  Dame  at  Paris,  could  stand  on  the  ground  occu- 
pied by  this  one  hall,  and  that  it  is  ten  times  the  size 
of  the  white  hall  in  the  palace  at  Berlin,  one  gets  a 
better  notion  of  its  greatness. 

The  roof  of  this  hall  was  made  of  stone  slabs,  each 
of  thirty  tons  weight,  and  these  were  placed  on  stone 
beams  which  rested  in  turn  upon  134  columns,  and 
weighed  each  of  them  forty-one  tons.  These  gigantic 
columns,  coloured  as  they  once  were,  from  base  to 
capital,  are  partly  papyriform,  and  partly  in  shape  of 
a  budding  lotus.  Twelve  of  the  columns  that  form  the 


146  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

central  avenue  of  the  halls  have  a  height  of  65  feet,  a 
diameter  of  n  feet,  a  circumference  of  33  feet,  and  a 
hundred  men  could  stand  together  on  the  enormous 
surface  of  each  bud-  or  bell-shaped  capital. 

It  was  indeed  a  forest  of  stone,  in  which  should 
grow,  for  eternity,  the  wonder  of  the  world. 

The  worshipper  who  passed  from  out  this  forest 
gloom  into  the  spacious  open  fore-court  beyond,  with 
its  side  colonnades,  and  stood  beside  the  pylon  by 
the  great  ramhead-sphinx  avenue  toward  the  Nile, 
now,  at  last,  being  uncovered  for  the  gaze  of  Nile 
travellers,  and  in  the  direct  line  with  the  inside  gate 
of  Hat-Shepset's  temple,  opposite,  across  the  plain, 
must  have  felt  that  Seti  I.  was  as  a  god,  and  his  son 
Rameses,  whose  artists  were  working  away  to  finish  the 
sculptured  pictures,  was  honouring  a  god,  as  he 
honoured  his  father.  But,  great  as  was  the  task  to 
hew  and  set  up  that  hall  of  columns,  I  think  the  task 
of  the  decorator  strikes  one  to-day  as  being  even  more 
daring. 

Seti  died,  it  is  not  known  when,  for  Rameses  I.  had 
been  some  time  upon  the  throne,  and  virtual  king 
before  his  father's  death.  His  soul  flew  up,  as  old 
Egyptians  would  say,  to  join  itself  to  the  sun,  and 
entered  the  golden  boat  of  Ra  to  sail  through  Amenti 
the  Vast. 

But  he  must  have  parted  with  life  sadly,  for  neither 
was  the  hall  of  columns  complete,  nor  was  the 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH   THE  GREAT     147 

memorial  temple  to  his  father  at  Karnak,  nor  the 
elaborate  shrine  at  Abydos,  finished.  But  his  deepest 
pain  must  have  been  that  his  own  tomb,  the  house  of 
eternity  fashioned  for  himself  in  the  western  cliff,  was 
not  yet  ready  to  receive  his  body. 

He  must  have  known  that  his  mummied  form  would 
needs  have  to  rest  in  the  salt  and  well-preserving  sands 
of  Abydos  for  a  time,  before  it  would  be  sealed  within 
the  splendid  white  sarcophagus,  and  laid  beyond  the 
hands  of  time  in  that  remarkable  vault  that  he  had 
been  hewing  for  it  in  the  Valley  of  the  Kings. 

That  tomb  of  Seti,  Pharaoh's  father,  is  worth  de- 
scribing. It  is  for  size,  variety  of  colouring,  and 
abundance  of  pictorial  wealth  and  inscription,  unique. 
The  roof  pictures  of  the  golden  chamber,  the  astrono- 
mical teaching  of  its  mythologies,  are  as  wonderful  as 
is  the  substance  of  the  text  of  the  Book  of  Being  in  the 
Underworld,  discovered  on  the  four  walls  of  one  of  the 
side  chambers,  called  the  "  Chamber  of  the  Law,"  which 
describes,  after  Egyptian  belief,  the  destruction  of 
mankind  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth  for  its  corrup- 
tion and  wickedness. 

This  tomb-chamber  of  Usiris,  as  Seti  is  called,  is 
seen  to-day,  a  black  speck  at  the  foot  of  one  of  the 
parched  yellow  debris  mounds  that  have  fallen  from 
the  terraced  limestone  cliff  above,  in  Biban-el-Muluk. 

It  is  known  as  Belzoni's  tomb,  and  had  escaped  the 
quest  of  Greeks,  and  Romans,  and  Arabs,  till  a  few 


148  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

years  ago,  when  Belzoni  entered  the  hillside  with  his 
torch,  passed  down  a  staircase  of  twenty-nine  feet, 
through  a  passage  of  eighteen  feet,  descried  a  second 
stair  of  twenty-six  feet,  passed  through  a  second 
passage  of  twenty-nine  feet,  and  found  himself  in  a 
small  ante-chamber  leading  to  a  grand  hall  of  twenty- 
six  feet  square,  upheld  by  four  pillars. 

Belzoni  went  on  through  a  second  hall,  through 
a  passage  and  a  second  ante-room,  and  entered  the 
third  and  largest  hall;  thence  he  entered  a  small 
room,  and  found — what?  The  body  of  Seti ?  No; 
but  the  glorious  white  alabaster  or  arragonite  sarco- 
phagus wherein  the  king's  body  had  once  lain,  and 
which  is  now  in  the  Soane  Museum,  Lincoln's  Inn 
Fields.  All  round  and  about  were  stowed  wooden 
images  of  Osiris,  placed  there  by  the  men  who  made 
lamentation  for  Seti,  in  the  fourteenth  century  before 
Christ,  perhaps  as  media  for  the  embodiment  of  the 
souls  who  would  be  tilling  his  fields  in  Amenti  the 
Vast,  or  who  should  wait  upon  him  when  his  body 
rose,  at  the  end  of  his  3000  years,  to  lay  aside  the 
swathing-bands  of  eternity. 

The  3000  years  had  passed,  and  Seti  had  risen — at 
any  rate,  no  Pharaoh  was  there ;  and  back  Belzoni 
came,  disappointed,  but  yet  well  satisfied,  for  here  in 
this  wonderful  tomb-chamber,  or  series  of  chambers, 
planned  by  Seti  himself,  was  such  a  marvel  of  wall 
cutting  and  pictorial  myth,  as  would  unseal  Egyptian 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  149 

life  and  faith,  and  make  the  dead  old  centuries  arise 
from  their  silence  and  their  sleep,  and  speak  aloud. 

As  one  enters  Belzoni's  tomb  to-day,  and  proceeds 
down  its  long  stair-broken  incline,  to  a  depth  of  150 
feet  and  a  length  of  500  into  the  hot  limestone,  one 
sees  numberless  side  chambers  cut  neatly  out  of  the 
solid  rock.  In  one  of  them  the  story  of  the  Fall,  or 
rather  of  the  Curse,  is  plainly  written.  Edouard 
Naville  has  translated  it,  and  I  will  transcribe  a  passage 
or  two  : 

"  The  god  being  by  himself,  after  he  has  been  estab- 
lished as  king  of  men  and  the  gods  together,  there 
was  silence.  His  majesty  said:  'I  call  the  gods 
before  me  who  were  with  me  when  I  still  was  in  the 
divinity  of  the  great  deep  Nun.'  When  the  gods  came 
they  bowed  down  before  his  majesty,  and  said, '  Speak 
to  us,  that  we  may  hear  it.'  Then  said  the  sun-god  to 
Nun,  the  deity  of  the  great  deep  :  '  Thou  firstborn  of 
the  gods,  whose  issue  I  am,  and  you  ancient  gods, 
behold  the  men  who  are  born  of  myself ;  they  utter 
words  against  me.  I  have  waited,  and  have  not  de- 
stroyed them,  till  I  shall  have  heard  what  you  have  to 
say.' 

"  Then  said  the  gods  in  the  presence  of  his  majesty  : 
'  May  thy  grace  allow  us  to  go,  and  we  shall  smite  them 
who  plot  evil  things,  thy  enemies,  and  let  none  remain 
among  them.' n 

There  is,  within  this  wondrous  tale  of  the  destruc- 


ISO  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

tion  of  mankind  because  of  man's  wickedness,  some- 
thing that  links  us  on  to  the  far  past,  which  heard 
how  the  great  deep  swallowed  up  the  world  when  it 
was  lying  in  wickedness,  a  rebel  against  God,  that  so 
a  new  era  and  a  new  race  of  men  might  begin  the 
mystery  of  godliness,  and  good  living,  and  faithfulness 
once  again.  There  is  a  terrible  trumpet-sound  of  just 
judgment  from  heaven  for  the  sin  of  man.  But  is 
there  not  also  in  it  a  note  of  aspiration  sounding  from 
the  tomb  of  Usiris  the  justified,  that  bids  us  believe 
in  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness.  I  cannot  believe  that  that  mythologi- 
cal record  of  the  destruction  of  mankind  was  a  mere 
fanciful  invention.  It  had  its  seat  surely  in  the 
heart -stricken  condition  of  a  world  that  waited  for  the 
dawn. 

Another  scene  is  depicted,  in  which  Apepi,  the 
serpent  of  evil,  is  dragged  up  from  the  depth  of  the 
sea,  and  slain  by  the  god  of  light ;  and  as  one  sees  it 
one  goes  back  in  thought  to  our  Scandinavian  fore- 
fathers, and  remembers  how  they  too  believed  in  the 
Midgard-worm  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  how 
Thor  went  out  to  catch  it  and  Loki  hindered  him. 
Some  common  connection  of  idea  binds  the  Vikings 
of  olden  times,  with  their  belief  in  the  worm  of  evil,  to 
the  sculptures  of  Seti's  tomb. 

We  turn  from  the  marvel  of  the  tomb  of  Seti,  leave 
the  lizard  in  the  hot  sand  and  the  bat  in  the  darkness 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  151 

of  its  inner  chambers ;  we  leave  the  scarab  upon  his 
disk  upon  the  wall  guarded  by  his  god  ;  we  leave  the 
designs  on  the  stucco,  at  first  sketched  in  in  red,  and 
altered  after  in  good  black  paint  by  the  master 
draughtsman  ;  and  hie  back  in  thought  from  the  Valley 
of  the  Kings,  to  the  little  room  of  Sir  John  Soane,  nigh 
filled  by  the  great  alabaster,  arragonite  sarcophagus  in 
which  once  lay  Seti  the  king,  and  which  Belzoni  in 
1819  discovered — but,  alas  !  empty. 

The  figures  and  hieroglyphics  which  ornament  the 
sarcophagus  were  engraved  and  then  filled  in  with 
blue  paint,  and  after  many  years  of  patient  work  the 
whole  has  been  studied  and  carefully  translated  by 
M.  Lefebure,  and  appears  in  the  "Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  x.  and  vol.  xii. 

The  principal  subject  of  the  inscriptions  on  the 
sarcophagus,  is  the  navigation  of  the  sun  nightly  in  the 
infernal  regions.  Twelve  gates  enclose  successively 
twelve  sections  of  space,  and  these  gates  correspond 
to  the  hours  of  night.  Serpents  with  various 
names — Saa-set,  Akebi,  T'ebbi,  Tek-her,  Set-m-ar-f, 
Akheu-ar,  Set-her,  Ab-ta,  Stu,  Am-netu-f — guard  the 
doors ;  the  first  door  has  no  serpent  guardian,  the 
last,  or  twelfth  door  has  two — Sebi  and  Reri  by  name. 

The  god  passes  through  the  sections  of  space  from 
gate  to  gate,  having  at  his  right  hand  the  blessed,  at 
his  left  the  damned,  who  are  represented  in  Egyptian 
perspective  above  and  below. 


152  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

The  writings  that  accompany  the  illustrations  are 
simply  an  edition,  of  Seti's  time,  of  the  Book  of 
Hades.  To  put  the  subject-matter  briefly  :  the  sun, 
and  the  gods  and  the  souls  that  accompany  him,  are 
swallowed  up  by  the  earth  in  the  west,  and  rise  in  the 
east. 

The  underworld  in  Seti's  tomb  was  looked  at  as 
having  moral,  as  well  as  physical  teaching.  Apap,  the 
symbol  of  evil,  was  punished  in  that  underworld,  and 
in  that  underworld  dwelt  good  and  bad ;  in  that 
underworld  the  judgment  throne  was  set  and  the 
books  opened.  Ra,  the  sun-god,  rewarded  the  good, 
and  Turn  and  Horus  punished  the  evil-doers. 

To  give  an  idea  of  the  amount  of  writing  on  the 
sarcophagus,  I  need  only  add  that  its  translation  occu- 
pies fifty  pages  of  close  octavo. 

Amongst  the  subjects  that  appear  which  are  familiar 
to  Egyptologists,  is  the  conquest  of  the  great  serpent, 
the  Midgard-worm  of  Norse  mythology — the  great 
enemy  of  the  human  race,  and  a  procession  of  its 
conquerors  may  be  observed,  carrying  along  its  lengthy 
folds  in  solemn  procession.  There  also  may  be  seen 
that  well-known  judgment  scene,  in  the  hall  of  Osiris, 
Osiris  on  the  throne,  and  Cerberus  at  the  door,  Thoth 
with  the  ibis-head,  the  Scales,  Anubis  and  Horus  of 
the  hawk-head,  to  superintend  the  weighing  of  the 
heart,  and  the  goddesses  wearing  the  emblem  of  law 
and  truth,  the  feathers  on  their  heads,  introducing  the 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  153 

trembling  and  reverential  soul  who  lifts  his  hands  in 
attitude  of  prayer. 

The  cover  of  the  sarcophagus,  though  broken,  is 
engraved  on  its  upper  and  outer  side.  The  bottom  of 
the  sarcophagus,  which  is  intact,  shows  us  the  goddess 
Nu,  the  goddess  of  the  clear  blue  sky,  her  arms  hang- 
ing down,  her  body  wrapped  about  by  folded  wings, 
and  over  her  head  are  inscribed  her  many  names,  the 
last  of  which  is  studded  with  stars,  and  signifies 
heaven. 

The  king,  Seti-Meneptah  the  Truthful,  speaks  to  Nu, 
and  asks  "  to  have  his  weakness  put  away  from  him, 
from  what  makes  him  weak  ";  in  other  words,  prays  to 
be  delivered  from  the  body  of  this  death,  and  to  have 
everlasting  life. 

And  the  answer  comes  from  Seb,  saying  :  "  To  this 
chosen  one  have  I  given  purity  on  earth,  and  power  in 
heaven."  And,  addressing  Seti,  he  adds  :  "  Seti- 
Merempthah  the  Truthful,  thy  mother  Nu  has  given 
thee  health  which  is  in  her  for  safety.  Thou  art  in  her 
arms  ;  thou  shalt  never  die.  Removed  are  evils  which 
remained  for  thee.  Horus  stands  beside  thee ;  thy 
mother  Nu  is  come  to  thee ;  she  purifies  thee ;  she 
renews  thee  as  a  god,  vivified,  established  among  the 
gods." 

Nu,  the  Very  Great,  answers  :  "  I  have  made  him  a 
soul.  His  soul  shall  live  for  ever." 

The  chapter  ends  with  the  prayer  of  Seti,  repeated  > 


154  NOTES  FOR    THE  NILE 

asking  to  be  delivered  from  the  bonds  of  weakness, 
and  from  all  that  in  his  mortal  life,  or  by  reason  of  sin, 
made  it  exist. 

A  second  chapter  tells  us  how,  in  the  presence  of 
the  Lord  of  Justice,  freed  from  iniquity,  and  living  for 
ever  and  ever  for  the  double  period  of  eternity,  by  the 
mouth,  as  it  would  seem,  of  Osiris,  the  Osiris-king  ; 
son  of  Ra — Master  of  Diadems,  Seti-Merempthah  the 
Truthful — prayed  for  deliverance  from  all  evil.  His 
memory  goes  back  to  Egypt ;  he  sees  his  temples  at 
Abydos  and  Karnak  and  Kurnah  filled  with  all 
manner  of  store,  corn  and  barley  in  untold  quantity, 
festivals  being  celebrated  by  the  son  of  his  body, 
funeral  offerings,  incense,  oil,  and  all  good  and  pure 
things  upon  which  gods  feed ;  and  he  feels  joyous- 
hearted,  now  united  to  life  for  ever,  in  the  plains  of 
offerings.  But  there  is  one  touchingly  pathetic  note 
struck  in  his  prayer;  it  is  this:  "May  the  impious 
not  take  possession  of  me."  The  prayer  heard  and 
answered  for  the  3000  years  has  ceased  to  be  of  avail. 

In  June  1881,  by  the  greed  for  backsheesh  of  a 
jackal-hunter,  one  of  the  Abd  er-Rasoul  family  of 
Thebes,  the  body  of  Seti  was  given  into  the  hands  of 
men  who  had  long  forgotten  to -pay  honour  to  the 
gods  of  old  Egypt. 

And  by  the  impious,  yet  reverential  hands  of 
strangers,  the  embalmed  king  was  brought  from  the 
elose-packed  burial-chamber  of  the  Her-hor  family,  in 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  155 

the  cliff  at  Der-el-Bahari,  and  conveyed  450  miles 
down  the  Nile  to  its  resting-place  in  the  Bulak 
Museum.  Unwrapped  as  we  know  it  had  been  at 
least  twice  before,  by  the  hands  of  the  priests  in  the 
twenty-first  dynasty,  it  had  not  seen  the  light  for 
2913  years — that  is,  since  1023  B.C.  It  was  finally 
unwrapped  on  July  9,  1886  ;  and  the  mummy-bundle, 
numbered  3238,  gave  us  back  a  sight  of  Seti  the 
king. 

This  is  Professor  Maspero's  account  of  the  unwrap- 
ping, as  it  appeared  in  the  Academy  of  July  31,  1886  : 

"The  coffin  No.  5232  enclosed  the  mummy  of  Seti 
I.,  second  king  of  the  nineteenth  dynasty,  and  father  of 
Rameses  II.,  according  to  the  proces  verbaux  of  the 
year  six  and  the  year  sixteen  of  Her-hor,  and  of  the 
year  ten  of  Pinotmou  I.  registered  upon  the  coffin-lid. 

"The  apparel  of  bandages  and  shrouds  which 
enveloped  him,  was  disposed  in  the  same  manner 
as  on  the  mummy  of  Rameses  II. 

"Under  about  half  the  thickness  of  linen,  were  two 
lines  of  a  hieratic  inscription,  written  in  black  ink,  and 
informing  us  that  in  the  year  nine,  the  second  month 
of  Puit,  the  i6th,  was  the  day  when  the  King 
Menmari  (Seti  I.)  was  re-wrapped.  Life,  health,  and 
strength  to  the  king"  (a  formula  attached  to  every 
king,  whether  living  or  dead.) 

Another  inscription,  traced  on  one  of  the  bandages, 
adds  that  the  linen  employed  in  the  enamellings 


156  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

(one  does  not  know  what  is  quite  meant — was  it  the 
linen  used  in  laying  on  colour,  or  linen  cartonage  ? — 
we  expect  the  latter)  had  been  manufactured  by  the 
chief  prophet  of  Ammon,  Menkhopirri,  in  the  year 
five,  which  gives  us  the  date  of  the  last  restoration  to 
which  the  mummy  was  subjected. 

"  The  body,"  continues  M.  Maspero,  "  had  nearly 
the  same  aspect  as  that  of  Rameses  II. — long, 
emaciated,  of  a  blackish-yellow  colour,  the  arms 
crossed  upon  the  chest ;  the  head  was  covered  by  a 
mask  of  fine  linen,  blackened  with  pitch,  which  had 
to  be  lifted  up  with  a  chisel. 

"  Mr.  Barsanti,  who  undertook  this  delicate  opera- 
tion, brought  out  of  this  formless  mass  the  most 
beautiful  mummy's  head  that  has  ever  been  seen  in 
the  museum. 

"  The  sculptors  of  Thebes  and  Abydos  did  not 
flatter  Pharaoh  when  they  gave  him  that  delicate, 
sweet,  and  smiling  profile  that  travellers  admire. 
The  mummy  has  preserved,  after  thirty-two  centuries, 
almost  the  same  expression  he  had  when  living. 
What  strikes  all  at  first,  on  comparing  it  with  that  of 
Rameses  II.,  is  the  astonishing  likeness  to  each  other 
of  father  and  son — nose,  mouth,  chin ;  the  features 
are  the  same,  but  finer,  more  intelligent,  and  more 
human  in  the  case  of  the  father.  Seti  I.  is  the 
idealised  type  of  Rameses  II.  He  must  have  died  an 
old  man.  The  head  is  shaven;  the  eyelashes  are 


THE  FATHER  OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT  157 

white.  The  state  of  the  body  shows  him  to  have 
been  past  his  sixtieth  year,  and  this  confirms  the 
opinion  of  the  savants  as  to  his  very  long  reign.  The 
body  is  healthy  and  vigorous,  though  the  knotted 
finger-joints  bear  evident  traces  of  gout.  The  two 
teeth,  perceptible  under  the  paste  which  fills  the 
mouth,  are  white  and  well  preserved." 

So  wrote  Maspero  the  day  he  first  looked  Pharaoh 
Seti  in  the  face. 

When  I  stood  in  the  hall  of  mummies  at  Bulak,  and 
the  attendant  drew  aside  the  drab  veil  from  the  slop-  ^ 
ing  glass  case  that  lay  next,  and  to  the  right  of,  the 
great  Pharaoh  of  the  Bondage,  Rameses  II.,  I  confess  I 
did  not  expect  to  find  such  calm  beauty  and  such  re- 
finement upon  the  face  of  his  father,  who  lay  in  silence 
before  me. 

The  coffin  in  which  the  king  lay,  was  thicker  in 
make,  longer  and  deeper  than  that  of  his  son,  hard 
by ;  it  seemed  three  inches  thick,  and  had  been  made 
of  panels  of  wood,  pegged  together,  of  the  same  Osirian 
type  as  the  other,  but  clumsier  and  rougher  in  build. 
I  noted  that  there  were  five  pegs  instead  of  three,  for 
the  fitting  on  of  the  coffin-lid. 

The  coffin's  interior  had  been  well  daubed  with 
pitch,  and  just  as  was  the  case  in  another  coffin,  the 
coffin  of  the  priest  Nebseni,  some  solitary  bees  had,  at 
one  time  or  other,  built  their  nests  within  it. 

Looking  at  the  body  of  the  king  as  he  lay  amid  his 


158  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

reddish-yellow  cerements,  one  was  first  struck  by  the 
fact  that  the  great  coffin  somewhat  dwarfed  the  king. 
His  feet  did  not  come  to  the  end  of  the  coffin  by  nearly 
a  foot  and  a  half ;  and  in  the  corner  was  an  offering 
of  mummied  meat  which  had  perhaps  been  put  there  for 
the  food  of  the  soul,  either  in  Amenti,  or  when  it  should 
rise,  or  perhaps  as  an  offering  to  the  gods  when  the 
coffin  was  last  unsealed.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  these 
coffins  were  made  larger  than  the  mummied  forms 
needed,  for  the  stowing  away  of  all  the  articles  of  dress 
or  diet,  or  tame  animal-pets,  which  it  was  thought 
should  go  along  with  the  dead  to  the  underworld,  as 
was  the  case  with  a  princess  Uast  em-Khebit  of  the 
Her-hor  dynasty  of  Thebes,  who  was  one  of  the  latest 
of  the  royal  personages,  buried  in  that  wonderful 
funeral-chamber,  wherein  the  celebrated  Der-el- 
Bahari  find  was  made.  Her  tame  gazelle  was  killed 
and  mummified,  and  buried  along  with  her,  as  may  be 
seen  any  day  in  the  Gizeh  Museum.  But  to  return. 

The  hands  of  the  king  lay  crossed,  right  hand  over 
the  left — long,  large,  powerful  hands,  swollen  somewhat 
at  the  joints.  The  legs  and  arms  still  were  swathed 
in  the  tight-fitting  bandages  of  eternity,  but  gave  one 
the  feeling  of  being  very  powerful  and  robust.  He 
looked  as  if  he  had  died  in  his  prime. 

The  wrappings  had  not  been  removed  from  the 
king's  neck,  and  so  there  was  a  life-like  proportion 
given  to  the  head  and  shoulders,  and  as  one  looked 


THE  FATHER   OF  PHARAOH  THE  GREAT    159 

the  king  in  the  face,  one  seemed  to  be  gazing  on  a 
beautiful  statue,  hewn  from  black  basalt  or  ebony. 
But  the  face  was  not  the  face  of  one  of  the  sons  of 
Egypt,  as  we  had  seen  it  sculptured  and  painted  and 
carven  in  the  rooms  of  the  museum  that  formed  the 
ante-chambers  to  the  Salle  des  Momies.  Turanian, 
Mongolian,  pre-Canaanite,  Hyksos,  whatever  the 
caste  in  type  was,  it  was  not  the  ordinary  face  of  the 
Pharaohs  of  older  or  later  dynasties  that  have  come 
down  to  us.  And  one  saw  something  in  it  that  made 
one  feel  this  Set  or  Setish  follower  of  Baal  Sutech,  as 
the  name  implies,  had  been  born  of  an  alien  mother, 
and  had  ruled  by  sheer  personal  prowess  and  power 
over  an  Egypt,  not  by  tradition  of  blood  his  own. 

There  was  quite  a  remarkable  change  of  colour  in 
the  skin,  as  compared  with  the  lighter  yellow  face  of 
Rameses  II.,  Seti's  son. 

There  was,  speaking  broadly,  upon  Seti's  face  a 
sense  of  wonderful  repose — the  repose  seen  upon  the 
face  of  a  good  man  gone  to  his  rest. 

And  yet  withal  there  was  a  kind  of  look  of  injured 
dignity  upon  it,  as  if  the  king  had  died  almost  reproach- 
ing his  death-hour.  The  face  certainly  might  have 
smiled  often  enough  in  life ;  but  it  was  a  very  firm 
mouth,  and  it  had  oftener  frowned. 

The  forehead  was  shapely — not  so  retreating  as  was 
the  forehead  of  Rameses  his  son.  The  head,  "  doli- 
cho-cephalic,"  but  not  to  the  extent  of  his  son  either ; 


160  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

the  ear  was  delicate,  and  shone  like  a  bit  of  polished 
bog-oak,  the  nose  slightly  Napoleonic ;  the  eyebrows, 
still  visible,  had  been  low  eyebrows — that  is,  close 
above  the  eyes — heavy  and  unarched  ;  the  eyelashes, 
by  the  few  remaining  hairs,  must  have  been  full  and 
long ;  the  lips  had  projected,  without  being  over-full 
or  fleshy — they  did  not  seem  sensual ;  the  cheek-bones 
were  high,  and  gave  a  determined  look  to  the  face ; 
and  again  one  was  impressed  by  the  strength  of  the 
jaw,  a  feature  Seti  handed  on  so  remarkably  to  his 
son. 

One  other  feature  was  notable :  it  is  a  feature  which 
a  side  view  of  Rameses'  face  shows  us  was  a  family 
feature.  It  is  a  feature  which  is  observed  in  nearly 
all  people  who  are  gifted  with,  or  who  exercise,  strong 
powers  of  observation ;  it  is  the  bar  of  Michael 
Angelo.  The  prominent  frontal  sinus  upon  the  brow 
of  Seti  was  most  striking.  No  one  who  looks  upon 
the  un-Egyptian  type  of  face,  recovered  and  brought 
back  to  life  from  its  dark  sleep  of  three  thousand  two 
hundred  and  fifty  odd  years,  but  must,  as  he  gazes, 
feel  that  he  is  in  presence  of  a  gifted  maker  of 
history,  a  great  king,  ruler,  warrior,  architect,  engineer, 
in  one,  who  might  well  have  been  father  of  one  of  the 
greatest  kings  the  Egyptian  people  ever  knew. 

Seti  the  First,  Seti  the  Truthful,  farewell !  In  what- 
ever larger  halls  of  truth  and  light  your  disembodied 
spirit  moves,  believe  I  speak  the  honest  truth,  when  I 


THE   FATHER  OF  PHARAOH   THE  GREAT.    161 

say  it  has  been  given  to  few  men  to  die  and  leave  the 
frail  shells  of  their  spirit  behind  on  earth,  with  such  a 
power  to  impress  the  centuries  yet  unborn,  and  fill 
them  with  the  thought  that  power  and  refinement, 
intellect  and  feeling,  must  still  be  the  possession  of 
those  who  would  be  kings  among  men. 


CHAPTER  V 

FIRST   IMPRESSIONS   OF   THEBES. 

THE  great  rosy  barrier  of  the  Libyan  hill,  just  now  ap- 
parently right  across  our  path,  seemed  as  the  river 
turned  eastward,  to  come  up  close,  and  run  parallel  with 
us,  and  the  heights  of  Kurnet-el-Gurnah,  broken  into 
terraces  of  yellow-pink  limestone,  slopes  of  grey  debris 
and  shining  cliffs  of  sunny  whiteness,  became  a  wall 
upon  our  right  hand.  On  our  left,  the  Arabian  chain 
of  ghostly  lilac  hue,  rose  through  the  haze  in  peaks 
that  reminded  us  of  the  tent -like  shapes  of  the  Cum- 
brian hills,  and  seemed  to  lie  beyond  a  heaving 
desert  of  utter  barrenness,  five  miles  to  the  eastward. 
The  banks  of  the  Nile  dwindled,  and  sloped  with 
gentler  slope,  and  already  the  husbandmen  had 
utilised  the  fruitful  gift  of  the  gracious  river,  and  the 
lupin  patches  and  light-green  corn  and  darker  clover, 
had  spread  a  verdurous  carpet  on  either  side  of  the 
shining  water-way.  Presently,  as  we  entered  upon  the 
"  straight "  that  takes  the  voyager  to  Thebes,  a  voice  at 
my  side  said,^'  There  is  Karnak,"  and,  lifted  above  the 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS    OF  THEBES  163 

palm  groves  and  acacia  trees,  dim  but  forcible,  the 
great  square  propylon  and  part  of  a  temple-wall  were 
seen  upon  the  eastern  bank.  Then,  unmistakable 
among  the  feathery  groves  of  tall  trees,  an  obelisk  was 
seen. 

Karnak  was  hid  behind  the  palm-grove ;  at  the 
same  time,  a  brown-looking  solid  mass,  surrounded 
by  what  seemed  to  be  a  huge  mud-wall,  was  seen,  like 
a  blot  of  shadow  upon  the  sunny  treeless  plain  to  the 
west,  and  I  got  my  first  view  of  the  Temple  of 
Kurnah,  lying  in  lonely  state  under  the  Libyan  hill. 

It  may  be  well  to  warn  travellers  that  another 
"brown-looking  mass,  surrounded  by  a  mud-wall," 
does  duty  on  that  western  side  of  the  plain,  for  this 
Temple  of  Kurnah.  Egyptian  sailors  are  not  very 
particular  in  details,  and  often  assure  the  voyager  that 
a  substantial  looking  Shekh's  house  across  the  plain 
is  the  ruined  "  Memnonium  of  Seti." 

But,  thought  I,  surely  this  is  not  the  Theban  plain. 
"  The  City  of  the  Hundred  Gates  "  that  Homer  sang 
of,  was,  surely,  set  round  by  hills  ;  and  here,  though  it 
is  true  that  the  mountain  ranges  are  visible  right  and 
left,  there  is  no  circling  barrier  to  keep  the  world  of 
foes  without,  the  might  of  wealth  within.  Rather, 
the  mountains  stretch  away  from  the  river  and  leave  a 
plain,  right  and  left,  which  might  in  size  have  given 
room  enough  for  a  city  as  large  as  Paris  to  be  built 
thereon. 


1 64  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

But  Thebes  had  its  ramparts  of  old,  as  Nahum  the 
Prophet  knew ;  "  the  Rampart  of  No-Ammon  was  the 
sea-like  stream,"  and,  certainly,  as  the  river  widens 
out  here,  one  feels  almost  as  if  one  were  sailing  on  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  rather  than  an  inland  river.  And  yet, 
withal,  there  is  such  tranquillity,  such  smoothness 
about  its  flow,  that  something  of  the  peace  of  its  dead 
past  enters  into  one's  soul,  as  one  sails  on  by  the  palm- 
groves  and  the  wheat  patches,  with  only  the  creak  of 
the  ceaseless  shaduf,  to  tell  one  that  here  still  men 
must  labour  until  the  evening,  and  only  in  the  sweat 
of  their  brow  eat  bread.  Let  the  shaduf-men,  as,  in 
their  sun-burnt  nakedness,  they  stand  and  toss  their 
rude  buckets  from  level  to  level,  but  cease  their  work 
for  a  week,  and  the  plain  that  is  so  fertile,  that  here, 
of  old,  men  worshipped  the  creative  principle  in  nature 
(made  visible  under  the  form  of  Ammon,  or  Amen 
Ra,  the  Sun-god)  would  return  to  the  barrenness  of 
the  desert,  and  be  naked  as  the  limestone  cliffs  of  the 
"  coffin-mountain,"  that  fence  the  Theban  plain  to  the 
west. 

But  the  men  who  built  their  "  City  par  excellence," 
for  that  is  the  meaning  of  Nu,  Nua,  or,  as  in  the 
Bible,  No,  the  sacred  name  of  Thebes,  chose  well. 
They  needed  a  plain  that  should  be  as  a  garden  of 
Life  on  the  one  side  of  their  river,  and  as  a  wilderness 
of  Death  on  the  other.  So  they  built  their  "  City  of 
Palaces  " — that  is  the  meaning  of  the  modern  word 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  165 

"  Luxor,"  or  (Arabic)  El-Kusur — on  the  eastern  bank  ; 
set  up  their  great  temple,  their  Temple  of  Ammon,  at 
Apiu,  the  City  of  Thrones,  the  Karnak  of  to-day,  and 
one  to  the  holy  Triad  of  Thebes,  at  Luxor,  and  lived 
and  laboured  on  the  side  of  the  river,  where  the  day- 
star  rose  among  the  gardens  of  flowers  and  groves  of 
palms ;  and  over  yonder,  where  all  was  dry  and  stark 
and  treeless,  they  determined  to  hide  their  dead,  and 
build  their  memorial  temples  in  honour  of  the  days 
that  were  past,  and  the  deeds  done  in  the  flesh ;  there, 
where  the  sun  went  daily  to  its  setting,  with  hope  of  a 
sure  and  certain  resurrection  at  the  dawn. 

Ages  have  passed  over  the  plain,  but  life  and 
activity  still  remain  for  the  most  part,  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  river,  and  yonder  little  collection  of  masts 
and  boats,  beneath  the  white  houses  and  the  palms, 
with  an  obelisk  peeping  up  above  the  jumble  of  flat 
roofs,  and  the  cornice  of  the  pylon,  showing  at  its 
side,  tells  us  that  there  is  the  City  of  Palaces.  Palaces, 
yes,  but  they  are  floating  ones ;  they  are  the  State 
barges  in  which  the  modern  tourist  finds  it  convenient 
to  travel,  and  there  they  lie  moored,  all  along  the 
bank,  with  their  flags  of  many  nations  flying,  much  as 
if  it  were  Henley  Regatta,  or  the  reach  of  the  Isis  at 
Oxford,  and  not  the  home  of  the  Pharaohs,  the  haunt 
of  "  Ammon"  and  "  Maut,"  and  "  Khons." 

The  traveller  may  indeed  be  forgiven  if,  as  he  looks 
down  the  long,  still  reach  of  the  Nile,  up  which  he 


1 66  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

moves  towards  Thebes,  he  is  disappointed.  He  knows 
that,  here  on  this  plain  a  little  provincial  town  grew, 
under  the  force  of  some  head-shekh  about  2500 
B.C.,  into  a  large  city;  that,  before  Abraham  was, 
Thebes  was  great ;  that  though  the  Shepherd-Kings 
dispossessed  its  rulers,  and  Assur-ban-Nabal  sacked  it 
(666  B.C.)  and  Cambyses  swept  over  it  with  fire  and 
sword,  it  survived  the  shock  of  ages,  long  maintained 
its  independence  and  power  of  revolt  against  reigning 
dynasties,  and  was  not  again  completely  overthrown 
until  the  sack  of  its  treasuries  and  temples,  by  the 
vindictive  Ptolemy  Lathyrus,  about  no  B.C. 

The  traveller  has  also  been  told  that  "  no  city  of 
the  old  world  can  still  show  so  much  of  her  former 
splendour "  as  Egyptian  Thebes.  And  so,  as  he 
moves  up  the  river  through  the  Theban  Plain,  and 
having  lost  sight  of  Kurnah,  fails  to  see  any  monument 
on  the  western  plain,  except  the  two  black  dots  that  he 
is  told  are  the  colossi,  he  loses  courage.  When  opposite 
Apiu,  or  "  Ape","  he  looks  for  a  Temple  on  the  eastern 
plain,  that  enshrined  all  the  highest  and  best  of  Egyp- 
tian worship  to  the  great  Jupiter-Ammon,  that  was  in 
fact,  the  centre  of  religious  life  of  Upper  Egypt,  from 
the  time  of  Usertsen  I.,  2433  B.C.,  to  the  time  of 
Alexander,  312  B.C.,  and  only  sees  what  might  pass  for 
the  dead  end-wall  of  a  modern  factory,  that  has  been 
burnt  out — his  heart  fails  him.  He  moves  on  past  the 
palms,  past  the  "  sont "  trees,  past  the  tamarisks,  and 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  16/ 

is  nearing  the  home  of  the  most  splendid  of  the  splen- 
did Egyptian  kings,  the  glory  of  the  Amenophs  and 
the  Ramessids,  the  pride  and  honour  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  dynasties.  He  is  going  to  land  at 
Luxor,  the  "  city  of  palaces."  He  has  been  told  that, 
at  Luxor,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  temples  that 
modern  excavation  has  made  interesting.  The  temple 
that  the  great  warrior  and  architect  Amenophis  III., 
built  1500  B.C.,  that  Rameses  II.  added  to,  two  cen- 
turies and  a  quarter  later,  and  he  sees  the  top  of  a 
single  obelisk  among  cheap  Arab  houses  and  a  squalid 
mixture  of  mud  and  whitewash,  and  again  the  tra- 
veller's heart  dies  within  him.  It  was  a  disappoint- 
ment to  find  no  shining  cliffs,  encircling  a  garden  of 
Paradise,  it  is  a  greater,  to  see  no  ruins,  worthy  of 
the  report  of  its  ruined  greatness.  But  the  traveller 
has  forgotten  that  Strabo  visited  Diospolis,  the  city 
of  Ammon  in  24  B.C.  He  found  it  then  a  place  of 
shattered  houses  and  fallen  ruins,  and  many  years 
have  passed  since  then.  Let  him  take  courage,  land 
at  the  little  mud-village,  leave  the  flotilla  of  house- 
boats, and,  passing  through  the  garden  of  the  new 
Tewfikieh  Hotel — so  new  that  its  first  crop  of  beans 
and  cabbages  are  not,  as  yet,  fully  grown — he  will  find 
the  whole  of  the  mud  street  torn  up,  and  a  great  road- 
way of  solid  masonry,  with  isolated  blocks  twelve  feet 
apart,  fringing  the  solid  way.  These  isolated  blocks 
of  limestone  are  the  pediments  of  the  woman-and-ram- 


1 68  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

headed  sphinxes,  which  lined  the  great  highway  of  hewn 
tone,  nearly  two  miles  long,  which  Amenophis  III. 
made,  when  he  rebuilt  the  Temple  at  Luxor  1500  B.C., 
and  determined  to  connect  it  with  the  great  temple  of 
Ammon,  at  Karnak. 

We  followed  this  line  ourselves,  and  soon  found 
that  it  led  up  to  the  huddled  Arab  quarter  of  this 
"  city  of  palaces,"  whose  nearest  approach  to  a  palace 
are  the  pink-hued  Italian  Consulate  and  the  house  of 
Mohammed  Effendi.  Winding  through  the  sinuous 
mud  street,  six  or  eight  feet  above  the  original  ram- 
sphinx-lined  road,  we  emerged  from  the  huts  of  the 
barbers  and  the  tiny  cupboard-shops,  where  candles 
and  sugar,  and  lanterns  and  linen  stuffs,  and  dried 
dates  were  sold  to  any  one  who  did  not  mind  a  little 
Nile-dust  being  given  in  with  the  purchase ;  and  were 
suddenly  aware  of  the  fine  red  granite  obelisk,  some 
eighty-two  feet  high,  that  stands  where  Rameses  II. 
placed  it,  in  front  of  the  southern  pylon  of  the  Temple 
of  Luxor,  somewhere  about  1300  years  B.C.  It  struck 
me  at  once  as  being  a  splendid  piece  of  workmanship, 
the  cutting  of  the  inscription  quite  exquisite  in  force 
and  delicacy,  but  any  one  who  visits  Paris  can  know 
something  of  it,  for  the  obelisk  of  the  Place  de  la 
Concorde,  which  was  its  lesser  brother,  once  stood 
about  twenty  paces  from  this  one. 

It  was  a  revelation  to  find  what  excavations  had 
done  for  the  magnificent  colossi  that  stand  behind 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  169 

the  obelisk,  and  in  front  of  the  Propylon.  Familiar 
for  years  past  with  pictures  of  this  southern  gate  of 
the  temple,  whereon  the  heroic  single-handed  combat 
of  Rameses  II.  with  the  Khita,  as  sung  of  by  the  poet 
Pen-ta-Ur,  had  been  engraved,  and  before  which 
stood  the  colossi  buried  to  their  chins,  one  had  no  idea 
of  the  magnificence  of  the  approach  to  the  large  fore- 
court of  Rameses  II.,  till  one  saw  the  full  height  of 
the  great  gate,  and  its  flanking  colossal  statues  of 
Pharaoh.  The  Talus  of  the  Pylon  had  been  cut 
away  in  two  places,  to  make  room,  either  for  other 
statues,  or  for  the  huge  masts  that  once  stood  there 
for  lightning  conductors,-  as  some  say.  Away  down 
below,  in  the  great  ditch  of  the  excavation,  a  hundred 
Arab  lads  and  lasses,  singing  their  wild  work-gang 
chant,  were  to  be  seen  filling  the  palm-baskets,  and 
running  to  tip  them  into  trollies,  and  thus,  each  day 
to  add  to  the  interest  of  the  Temple  of  Luxor.  Poor 
little  lads  and  lasses !  The  corve"e  has  been  done 
away  with,  but  not  the  courbash,  and  a  huge  brute  of 
a  Turk  lashed  out  fast  and  furiously,  at  the  thinly 
draped  little  slaves  that  passed  to  and  fro,  and  had  it 
not  been  that  they  laughed  and  sang  as  they  toiled, 
and  seemed  to  take  the  lash  as  a  matter  of  course — 
something  for  which  they  got  a  piastre  and  a  half 
each  day — one  would  have  wished  all  archaeological 
interest  concerning  the  feet  of  the  colossi  and  the 
lower  walls  of  the  propylon,  far  enough. 


i;o  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Entering  into  the  first  court,  one  noted  that  it  had, 
with  its  propylon,  been  set  askew  to  the  main  buildings 
of  the  earlier  temple-body,  and  this,  no  doubt,  was 
part  of  Rameses  II.'s  design  to  make  it  square  with 
the  dromos  or  triumphal  way  that  ran  between  it  and 
the  temple  of  Karnak ;  next  we  observed  the  seven 
great  statues  of  the  king,  that  stood  between  the 
flanking  columns  of  the  southern,  eastern  and  western 
colonnade,  or  peristyle,  but  the  chief  interest  centred 
in  a  magnificently  wrought  statue  of  Rameses,  about 
twelve  feet  high,  that  had  escaped  the  fury  of  the 
Persian  invader  and  the  savagery  of  the  Copt,  and 
smiled  almost,  upon  the  excavators,  as  they  worked, 
from  his  position  between  the  glorious  columns  on  the 
east  side  of  the  court. 

Quite  as  beautiful  a  face  of  grey  granite  lies  in  the 
deep  pit  of  the  excavation  to  our  right  hand,  as  we 
pass  towards  the  portal  that  leads  to  the  colonnade  of 
Heru-em-Heb,  or  Horem-Hib. 

I  heard  that  the  authorities  are  about  to  remove 
this  to  the  Gizeh  Museum,  and  have  a  cast  made  from 
it,  with  which  they  intend  to  repair  the  colossal  statue, 
to  which  it  belongs,  and  so  Rameses  will  smile 
serenely,  from  his  royal  height  as  of  yore,  upon  the 
people  passing  to  and  fro  to  the  Temple  of  Ameribph. 

Not  one  of  the  least  remarkable  results  of  the 
excavation,  is  a  picture  in  stone,  upon  the  southern 
wall  of  this  court,  of  the  propylon,  with  its  colossi 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  171 

and  its  great  bannered  masts,  as  they  stood  in  the 
days  of  its  builder,  so  many  centuries  ago.  There  is 
the  propylon,  there  the  obelisks,  there,  four  standing 
colossi,  in  addition  to  the  two  seated  ones  of  to-day, 
and  there  the  huge  masts  that  took  the  sunshine  in 
the  days  when  the  people  passed  to  worship  Ammon 
Ra,  and  looked  on  the  Pharaoh  Rameses  II.  as  an 
incarnation  of  the  god  of  Thebes. 

Outside,  on  the  western  wall  of  this  court,  a  battle- 
scene,  or  rather  one  of  the  old  familiar  battle-scenes 
of  Rameses'  days,  has  been  brought  to  light.  We 
strolled  on  through  Heru-em-Heb's  colonnade, 
through  the  court  that  Seti  repaired  in  the  fourteenth 
century  B.C.,  passed  the  altar,  raised  "to  the  most  brave, 
holy  and  unconquered  Caesar,"  and  entered  the  court 
where  Romans  once  administered  justice,  and  where, 
while  Roman  senators  stared  in  togas  from  the  walls 
of  the  "cella"  in  which  the  Roman  emperor's  bust 
stood,  the  horses  champed  their  bits  and  stamped  in 
fresco  from  the  side  wall. 

Thence  we  wandered  into  the  side-chamber  where 
Queen  Maut-em-Shui,  the  mother  of  Amenhotep, 
gives  birth  to  her  child,  and  where  two  children, 
perhaps  the  child  and  its  double,  or  Ka,  are  presented 
on  a  table  of  offerings  to  Ammon  Ra,  the  Theban 
deity,  and  so,  back  to  the  Sanctuary  that  "  Alexander, 
the  king  of  men,  made  for  his  father  Amen-ra,  the 
presiding  divinity  of  Tape  (Thebes).  He  erected  to 


172  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

him  the  Sanctuary,  a  grand  mansion,  with  repairs  of 
sandstone  hewn,  good  and  hard  stone,  in  place  of  that 
made  by  his  majesty  Amenhotep,  king  of  men."  So 
runs  the  dedication.  And  so  well  has  the  hard  stone 
of  this  Sanctuary  lasted,  that  it  is  as  though  it  were 
but  put  in  repair  yesterday. 

Thence  I  went  to  the  colonnade,  by  the  banks  of 
the  river,  that  Amenhotep,  king  of  men,  erected  some- 
where between  1500  and  1510  B.C.,  for  just  beyond  his 
temple  lay  moored  a  great  raft,  whereon  were  packed 
the  last  consignment  of  the  bodies  of  the  priest- 
princes  and  priestesses  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  that 
had  just  been  conveyed  from  their  long  rest  in  a 
tomb-chamber  near  the  Der-el-Bahari,  and  I  was 
anxious  to  learn  from  the  director  of  the  Gizeh 
Museum,  some  particulars  of  this  latest  important  find. 

Mons.  Grebaut  received  me  courteously.  "  But," 
said  he,  "  you  are  just  a  week  too  late.  A  fortnight 
ago  yesterday,  we  took  from  the  tomb  the  first  of  the 
mummies  which  came  up  to  the  light,  a  little  child — 
and  a  week  ago  yesterday,  the  last  was  conveyed  across 
the  Theban  plain  in  safety,  to  the  raft  we  had  prepared, 
whereon  to  despatch  the  bodies  down  Nile  to  Cairo, 
the  last  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  coffin-cases,  of 
which,  not  more  than  twelve  had  been  tampered  with 
at  all."  My  courteous  informant  showed  me  that  it  was 
a  most  important  find.  The  twentieth  dynasty  was  an 
age  of  transition,  of  which  we  know  little.  It  is  not, 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  173 

of  course,  so  remarkable  a  discovery  in  the  actual 
personages ;  but  it  is  likely  enough,  from  a  cursory 
examination,  that  some  of  the  mummies  are  of  royal 
birth.  Such  names  as  Pinothem,  Masahirta,  Hontet- 
chui  and  Nessichonsu,  look  as  if  some  members  of 
the  reigning  families  may  be  expected  to  be  amongst 
those  brought  to  light. 

It  is  true  that  there  have  been  found  sixteen  canopic 
jars,  one  hundred  ushabti  boxes,  containing  close  on 
one  thousand  blue  porcelain  figures,  pots  of  honey, 
dom-palm  fruit,  muslin,  mummied  meats,  and  two 
very  curious  white-painted  figures,  with  outstretched 
hands,  of  Nephthys  and  Isis.  Nor  should  one  omit 
mention  of  two  palm-fans  or  flabella,  and  a  pair  of 
sandals  upon  which  the  mud  of  ages  ago  may  still  be 
seen  sticking ;  but  these  are  not  the  objects  that  give 
us  hope  that  this  discovery  will  be,  historically,  of  great 
worth. 

The  interest  of  the  find,  centres  in  the  papyri, 
seventy-seven  osiris  boxes,  of  which,  seventy-five  con- 
tain rolls  of  papyrus,  some  of  great  length ;  these  will, 
we  trust,  when  unrolled,  tell  us  a  good  deal  of  the 
condition  of  the  religion,  perhaps  of  the  'condition  of 
the  people.  One  priest  is  spoken  of  as  "  general  of  the 
auxiliary  forces  of  Thebes ; "  we  may,  perhaps,  find  civil 
and  military  matters  dealt  with,  and,  at  least,  may 
hope  to  find  hiati  in  our  knowledge  of  the  ritual  of 
Thebes,  in  the  times  of  the  twentieth  dynasty,  filled 


174  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

up,  perhaps  discover  further  chapters  in  the  Book  of 
the  Dead. 

The  next  day  I  visited  the  pit  whence  the  mummies 
were  taken,  and  fell  in  with  the  Arab  jackal-hunter, 
Abd  er-Rasoul,  to  whom,  if  one  may  trust  his  word, 
Egyptologists  are  indebted  for  this  new  addition  to 
the  roll  of  history.  He  grinned,  and  told  me  he  had 
known  of  this  great  vault  of  mummies  for  fifteen  years 
past,  and  when  I  asked  him  how  he  had  discovered 
it,  he  said,  pointing  to  the  iron  probing-rod  he  held  in 
his  hand,  "  With  this." 

The  pit's  mouth  lay  about  200  yards  to  the  north- 
west of  the  lower  terrace  of  the  Der-el-Bahari. 

The  pit  was  about  10  feet  square,  and  went  down, 
without  masonry  on  either  side  of  it,  far  into  the 
ground  for  a  depth  of  45  feet ;  thence  a  gallery,  about 
12  feet  wide  by  6  feet,  had  been  hewn,  that  ran 
north  and  south,  and  had  a  side  gallery  midway  of 
65  feet.  The  total  length  of  the  main  gallery  was 
roughly  424  feet,  and  this  was  crowded  with  the 
mummy-cases  of  those  one  hundred  and  sixty-three 
priests  and  priestesses  of  the  twentieth  dynasty.  The 
sight  of  the  removal  of  these  mummies  in  their  coffins 
across  the  Theban  plain  was,  so  all  who  witnessed  it 
tell  me,  most  remarkable.  Twice  in  each  day,  a 
funeral  procession  of  six  or  ten  bodies  borne  upon 
biers,  by  ten  or  twelve  men  each,  moved  down  through 
the  sands  of  Assasif,  to  the  green  cornfields  of  the 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  175 

Ramesseum,  and  so,  across  the  plain,  to  the  creeks  of 
the  Nile  and  the  sandy  flat  that  lies  opposite  Luxor. 

And  now  part  of  the  august  assembly  of  priests  and 
priestesses,  who  knew  the  Temples  in  their  grandeur, 
and  worshipped  Amen  Ra  1200  to  1000  years  B.C., 
have  passed  down  the  river  to  the  Gizeh  Museum, 
and  part  are  on  a  raft,  almost  within  shadow  of  the 
Colonnade  that  Heru-em-Heb  built  3350  years  ago,  at 
Luxor,  and  wait  for  the  steamer  that  shall  tear  them 
away  for  ever,  from  the  scenes  of  their  life  and  love 
and  labour,  and  the  home,  as  they  had  hoped,  of  their 
eternal  sleep.  Let  us  hope  the  world  will  be  the 
wiser  and  their  loss  of  rest,  our  gain.  It  is  but  right 
to  say  that,  whatever  claim  Abd  er-Rasoul  may  ad- 
vance as  to  his  knowledge  of  the  whereabouts  of  the 
actual  pit,  in  which  these  wonderful  mummies  of  the 
priests  and  priestesses  of  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
dynasty  were  hid,  he  knew  nothing  of  the  actual  con- 
tents of  the  gallery,  forty-five  feet  underground,  and 
it  was  the  scientific  narrowing  of  the  area  of  search, 
carried  on  by  Mons.  Grebaut,  who  has  entered  so 
ably  upon  the  previous  work  of  Messrs.  Maspero  and 
Mariette,  that  has  really  been  the  cause  of  the  great 
find.  Mons.  Grebaut  knew  that  a  little  area,  in  a  line 
of  important  tombs,  had  been  unworked,  and  he  set  to 
work  thereon,  with  the  result  that  these  163  bodies 
have  been  recovered.  The  mummy  cases,  or  coffins, 
themselves  are  full  of  interest  even  in  their  very 


176  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

ornaments,  for  they  introduce  symbols  and  figures  as 
yet  unknown.  I  saw,  for  example,  upon  six  of  them  a 
winged  ox,  which  was  novel  in  such  ornament.  The 
coffins  themselves  look  as  if  they  were  painted  and 
varnished  only  yesterday.  The  priests  are  darker 
skinned,  in  face  than  the  priestesses,  that  is,  as  repre- 
sented on  the  coffin  lids — the  ladies  for  the  most  part 
have  head-dresses  of  blue-green,  or  green-blue,  and 
wear  earrings.  The  coffins  of  the  twentieth  dynasty 
are,  for  the  most  part,  painted  with  figures  on  a  white 
ground,  the  coffin  cases  of  the  twenty-first  dynasty  are 
painted  with  green  and  blue  and  black  and  red,  upon 
a  yellow  ground. 

They  vary  in  size.  Some  are  evidently  the  mummy- 
cases  of  little  children ;  some  are  more  than  a  ton  in 
weight,  and  required  twelve  men  to  lift  them. 

As  for  the  papyri,  which  really  constitute  the  main 
interest  of  the  discovery,  they  are  enclosed  in  osiris 
boxes,  some  of  which  stood  as  much  as  three  feet 
high,  and  this  means  that  they  are  papyri  of  great 
size.  There  may,  of  course,  be  many  other  papyri 
wrapped  up  with  the  mummies  themselves,  it  is 
enough  to  know  that  those  already  found  in  the 
hollow  osiride-figure  boxes  have,  for  the  most  part, 
never  been  unsealed,  since  the  day  they  were  de- 
posited in  the  mummy-pit,  and  the  world  of  Egypto- 
logists will  be  anxious  to  know  their  contents,  which 
Mons.  Grebaut  will  as  soon  as  possible  examine,  and 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  177 

make  known.  Mons.  Daressy  was  the  engineer  in 
charge  of  the  lifting  of  the  coffins  to  the  pit's  mouth, 
and  such  care  was  used,  and  such  expedition,  that 
in  a  single  week,  the  whole  number  of  mummy-cases 
had  been  conveyed  without  damage  to  the  raft  at 
Luxor. 

Many  a  time,  after  that  first  day  at  Luxor,  did  I 
wander  by  that  solid  memorial  of  the  last  king  of  the 
eighteenth  dynasty — the  colonnade  of  Heru-em-Heb  ;. 
and,  passing  across  the  river,  gaze  back  at  it,  in  its  hour 
of  beauty,  that  witching  hour  of  the  Theban  sunset. 
Often  did  I  pass  along  the  newly-excavated,  western 
wall  of  the  temple,  and  look  upon  the  pictures  of 
horsemen  and  chariots  on  warlike  expeditions,  in  a 
mountainous  country.  Sometimes,  leaving  the  so- 
called  Christian  church  inside  the  walls,  I  passed  to 
the  little  baptistry  of  the  early  Copts,  the  excavators 
had  laid  bare,  and  puzzled  over  the  plant  and  tree 
life  which  the  men  of  an  earlier  day  had  carved  upon 
the  walls  hard  by ;  not  seldom  did  one  return  to  the 
forecourt  of  Rameses,  and  notice  how  the  king  who 
designed  it  had  been  obliged,  up  to  the  central 
pillar,  to  enclose  a  portion  of  the  sphinx-avenue  of 
Amenophis,  and  had,  by  reason  of  this  fact,  been 
compelled  to  set  his  pylons  askew,  so  as  to  secure  a 
central  approach  for  the  dromos  which  united  his 
temple-building  with  Karnak.  Nor  could  one  help 
wondering  at  the  skill  of  the  obelisk-hewers  of 

M 


178  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Rameses'  day,  who  knew  that  under  the  bright  sun, 
if  the  sides  of  the  obelisk  had  been  absolute  planes, 
they  would,  by  reason  of  the  sharpness  of  the  corners, 
have  appeared  slightly  concave,  and  who,  to  avoid 
this  optical  delusion  and  to  satisfy  the  eye,  had  given 
a  slight  entasis  or  convexity  to  the  surfaces,  which 
was  gradually  diminished  towards  the  point.     What 
a  pity  it  seemed  as  one  stood  facing  the  now  unburied 
propylon  and  forecourt,  that  modern  Luxor  should 
prevent  for  years  to  come — perhaps  for  ever — any- 
thing like  a  sufficient  clearance  of  ground,  to  enable  us 
to  judge  of  the  grandeur  of  the  temple  approach,  as 
known  to  the  men  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth 
dynasties.     Often  with  one's   mind  full  of  the  poem 
of  Pen-ta-ur,  and  its  illustrations  on  the  walls,  one 
would  go  and  look  at  the  picture  in  the  many-statued 
court  of  the  dedication  of  the  temple  to  Amen-Ra, 
look  upon  the  great  religious  procession,  the  sons  of 
the  king — the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  among  them, 
thirteenth  in  the  upper  register — and  marvel  at  the 
fatness   of   the    prize-fed,    heavy-belled,   and    high- 
plumed  oxen  that  went  on  that  occasion  to  the  sacri- 
fice ;  how  their  tongues  lolled  out,  how  hot  and  fat 
they  seemed ! 

Sometimes,  when  the  light  was  good,  one  returned  to 
that  strange  bridal-chamber  at  the  north-east  end  of 
the  Macedonian  sanctuary,  and  marvelled  at  the 
quaint  wall-pictures  of  the  wooing  of  a  mortal  queen 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  THEBES  179 

by  the  great  god.  The  conception,  the  birth  of  the 
child,  the  dedication  of  its  "  double  "  to  the  heavenly 
father,  the  caresses  and  tender  affection  bestowed 
upon  it  by  its  earthly  parent,  set  forth  in  mystic  wise, 
were  pictures  as  full  of  interest  as  they  were  difficult 
with  certainty  to  interpret ;  and  it  was  with  a  kind  of 
relief  that  one  turned  back  towards  the  central  hall, 
by  way  of  the  black  granite  foundation-stones,  that 
tell  us  how  long  before  Amenoph's  time  here  Sebek- 
em-Saf  built  his  temple  to  the  Theban  god,  and  saw 
upon  the  walls  slaves  staggering  under  their  gigantic 
oil  jars,  or  bearing,  as  a  present  to  the  god,  one  of 
the  caged  lions  which  Amen-hetep  III.  had  brought 
from  the  hunting-field ;  for  Amenoph,  the  knightly,  the 
generous  and  the  brave,  was  the  Nimrod  of  Egypt, 
and  could  boast,  as  his  "  Scarabaei "  tells  us,  that  in 
the  first  ten  of  his  thirty-five  years  reign,  he  had  slain 
one  hundred  and  two  lions  with  his  own  hand. 

I  have  sometimes  wondered  whether  those  five  hun- 
dred and  seventy-two  statues  of  the  lioness-headed 
wife  of  Ptah,  Sekhet-Pasht,  whose  few  remaining 
figures  lean  so  sorrowmlly  round  the  sacred  lake  of 
what  was  once  the  temple  to  Mut,  which  Amen-hetep 
built  to  the  right  of  his  ram-sphinx  avenue  atKarnak, 
may  not  have  had  their  origin  in  some  wish  to  memo- 
rialise the  lion-hunter's  prowess.  It  certainly  was  his 
love  of  the  lion-hunt  which  won  for  him  the  love  of 
Taia.  What  a  fine  couple  they  must  have  been ! 


i8o  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Any  one  who  remembers  the  refinement  of  the  face 
of  Amenoph  III.,  as  seen  to-day  in  stone  in  the 
British  Museum  ;  any  one  who  has  once  gazed  upon 
the  face  of  his  Mesopotamian  consort,  which  looks 
down  upon  us  in  its  white  limestone  loveliness  in  the 
hall  at  Gizeh,  will  understand  this. 

One  can  see  them  borne  by  barge,  or  carried  on 
litters  to  the  terrace  by  the  Nile  bank,  with  their 
attendant  officers  and  fan-bearers,  and  a  goodly  com- 
pany, in  the  days  of  auld  lang  syne,  to  watch  the 
masons  at  their  work  of  rearing  the  last  of  the  thirty- 
two  columns  that  should  perpetuate  their  piety  and 
their  splendour.  By  their  side  stands  the  architect, 
Amen-hotep,  son  of  Hapoo,  just  fresh  come  from  the 
sandstone  quarries  of  Silsileh,  where  he  is  hewing  the 
twin  Colossi  for  his  royal  master,  and  full  of  enthu- 
siasm about  the  eight  gigantic  rafts  which  he  has 
planned  for  their  transport.  The  dream  fades,  dis- 
pelled by  the  clouds  of  dust  that  rise  from  the 
trenches  of  excavation  round  this  ancient  hall ;  but 
I  expect  even  to-day,  in  spirit,  that  royal  pair  might 
be  with  us  in  our  unfeigned  satisfaction  to  witness 
the  carefulness  with  which  M.  Grebaut,  director  of 
Egyptian  antiquities,  is  doing  all  he  can  to  recover 
for  us,  the  history  of  the  temple  of  Amen-Ra  at  Luxor, 
and  with  careful  repair,  is  giving  back  to  the  pillars  of 
Amenoph  something  of  their  original  strength  and 
beauty.  These  pillars  of  the  Central  Hall  at  Luxor 


FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF   THEBES  181 

have  stood  nigh  upon  3400  years,  and  if  only  the 
constantly  rising  level  of  the  Nile  will  admit  of  it,  they 
may  stand  as  long  again. 

Every  day  that  the  traveller  stays  at  Luxor,  Luxor 
and  its  surroundings  of  wonder  and  beauty  grow  upon 
him ;  but  nothing  will  quite  efface  his  first  impression 
of  Thebes  as  he  sails  up  the  river  to  the  mooring,  and 
that  impression  is  almost  certain  to  be  one  of  dis- 
appointment. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    HYMNS    OF   ANCIENT   EGYPT. 

THE  silence  of  Egypt  to-day  is  very  impressive  :  the 
songlessness  of  the  land  lays  a  heavy  weight  upon  one. 
The  cry  of  the  hoopoe,  the  chirrup  of  the  quail,  the 
burr  of  the  sakiyeh,  the  bark  of  a  village  dog,  and 
the  melancholy  pastoral  pipe  of  a  shepherd  in  mid- 
plain — these  come  to  one  as  a  surprise  and  pleasure. 
But  the  silence  of  the  dead  soon  swallows  up  all 
these  living  sounds,  and  one  would  give,  at  times,  a 
good  deal  to  hear  even  a  German  band  or  a  hurdy- 
gurdy.  This  was  not  so  in  the  olden  time.  Then, 
when  the  boat-loads  passed  along  the  Nile  there  was 
song.  The  pipers  played  lustily,  as  the  pilgrims 
floated  on  to  their  yearly  festival  at  Bubastis. 

Every  temple,  with  the  exception  of  the  temple 
to  Osiris  at  Abydos,  had  its  trained  band  of  music 
makers  and  singers.  No  feasts,  funeral  or  otherwise, 
were  complete  without  the  sound  of  harp  and  pipe, 
lyre,  guitar,  tambourine,  and  flute. 

Plato  tells  us   that  music  was  considered,  by  the 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  i8j 

Egyptians,  as  a  most  important  factor  in  the  education 
of  children.  Strabo  informs  us  that  the  scholars  were 
taught  not  only  their  letters,  but  songs  appointed  by 
law,  and  a  certain  kind  of  music  established  by  govern- 
ment. And  though  it  would  appear  that  the  higher 
classes  were  not  in  the  habit  of  performing  in  public, 
but  left  that  to  a  great  professional  class  of  musicians, 
there  ars  evidences  on  the  walls  of  the  tombs  that 
even  the  priestly  caste  gave  musical  "at  homes." 

Visitors  to  Tell  el-Amarna  may  remember  the  picture 
of  the  blind  Egyptian  harper  and  his  chorus  of  blind 
singers  (Sir  G.  Wilkinson,  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol. 
ii.  p.  95).  They  will  have  noted  in  the  so-called  Tomb 
of  the  Harper,  the  tomb  of  Rameses  III.  at  Thebes, 
the  grace  and  size  of  the  harp  that  made  sweet  music, 
1200  B.C.  They  will  remember  that  Thothmes  III. 
(1600  B.C.),  the  king  who  began  the  building  of  that 
great  hall  of  columns  at  Karnak,  appointed  feasts  of 
victory  to  be  celebrated  on  the  festivals  of  Amen  Ra. 
Amongst  the  treasures  and  gifts  to  the  god's  shrine 
of  which  we  have  record,  special  mention  is  made  of 
a  beautiful  harp  of  silver  and  gold  and  precious  stones 
"  to  sing  the  praises  of  Amen  upon  his  splendid  festival 
days."  But  the  days  of  music,  "  that  fair  handmaiden  of 
God  and  near  allied  unto  divinity,"  have  an  ancestry  in 
Egypt  that  reaches  back  beyond  the  pyramid  days ; 
and  the  traveller  who,  after  gazing  at  the  sistrum 
and  pipe  and  harp  and  viol  that  may  be  seen  in  the 


184  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Egyptian  collection  of  the  British  Museum,  goes  to 
Egypt  and  is  at  the  trouble  of  visiting  the  Medum 
will  find  that  in  the  time  of  Seneferu  the  favourite 
guitar  of  old  Egypt  has  become  a  symbol  for  words, 
has  already  passed  into  speech  as  the  word  "  Nefer,"  and 
is  carved  next  to  the  sickle,  upon  the  huge  lintel  of  the 
doorway  of  the  Lady  Atot's  tomb.  The  hymnody  of 
ancient  Egypt  was  a  national  possession.  The  psalm- 
singing  of  the  Hebrews  who  came  up  out  of  Egypt,  is 
little  to  be  wondered  at  by  those  who  note  how 
on  the  monuments  the  voice  and  instruments  seem 
to  go  together.  The  tunes  are  lost,  but  some  of  the 
familiar  hymns  of  that  old  people  of  the  Nile,  preserved 
to  us  in  papyri,  and  now  done  into  verse,  may  be  of 
interest  to  the  reader. 

It  has  seemed  a  pity  that  the  most  authentic  prose 
translations  of  the  hymns,  dirges,  poems,  and  wise 
sayings  of  Ancient  Egypt  should,  by  reason  of  their 
unmusical  form,  remain  comparatively  unknown  to 
the  general  reader. 

I  have  attempted,  as  literally  as  I  can,  to  render  a 
few  of  them  in  metre,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  thereby 
become  more  popular  with  the  traveller  to  Egypt. 

The  hymns  have  been  placed  chronologically,  but 
the  "  Heroic  Poem  of  Pen-ta-ur,"  as  being  distinct  in 
character,  has  been  printed  at  the  end  of  Chapter  VI. 
"  The  Precepts  of  Ptah-hotep  "  stand  by  themselves 
in  a  separate  chapter. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT.  185 


THE  FESTAL   DIRGE  OF  KING  ANTEF. 

ELEVENTH    DYNASTY,  2533-2466  B.C. 

THIS  solemn  festal  dirge,  of  which  a  free  rendering  is 
here  given,  was  found  among  the  Harris  papyri.  By 
the  first  lines  of  the  hymn,  its  authorship  is  ascribed 
to  King  Antef,  or  Antuf,  one  of  the  Pharaohs  of  the 
eleventh  dynasty,  whose  humble  brick  tombs  have 
been  discovered  at  Drah  Abu'l  Nekkah,  at  Thebes, 
and  specimens  of  whose  coffins  may  be  seen  in  the 
Louvre,  and  at  the  British  Museum.  The  stele  of 
King  Antef  will  be  familiar  to  visitors  to  the  Gizeh 
Museum.  It  is,  at  any  rate,  allowable  for  us,  as  we 
gaze  upon  that  worthy,  well-wigged  prince  sitting  in 
his  chair,  beneath  which  his  favourite  hound  is  on 
guard,  and  behind  which  stand  the  great  man's 
slipper-bearer  and  fly-flapper,  to  believe  that  we  are 
in  presence  of  the  author  of  this  venerable  poem.  A 
little  imagination  might  make  us  think  that  he  who  on 
that  stele  is  seen  just  to  be  reaching  out  his  hand  to 
take  a  cup  of  wine,  whilst  the  banquet  of  "  all  good 
things  in  abundance,"  is  within  arm's  reach,  was  him- 
self in  the  habit  of  acting  up  to  the  advice  he  gives 
his  friends,  and  had  felt,  sadly  enough,  that  it  was 


1 86  NOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 

best  to  make  the  most  of  the  good  things  the  gods 
had  sent. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  no  one  who  reads  this  pathetic 
dirge,  which,  for  so  many  hundred  years  in  Egypt, 
gave  its  poor  comfort  or  hopeless  encouragement  to 
those  who  came  together  to  the  funeral  feasts,  or 
listened  to  its  after-dinner  melody,  will  forget  that 
Herodotus  probably  heard  it  sung  on  one  of  the  occa- 
sions he  describes  in  his  Euterpe,  chap.  28,  as  follows  : 
"At  the  entertainments  of  the  rich,  just  as  the 
company  is  about  to  rise  from  the  repast,  a  small 
coffin  is  carried  round,  containing  a  perfect  repre- 
sentation of  a  dead  body.  It  is  in  size  sometimes  of 
one,  but  never  more  than  two  cubits,  and  as  it  is 
shown  to  the  guests,  one  after  one,  the  bearer  ex- 
claims :  "  Cast  your  eyes  on  this  figure.  After  death 
you  yourself  will  resemble  it.  Drink,  then,  and  be 
happy." 

We  have,  probably,  here  a  well-known  Egyptian 
festal  dirge  written,  say,  1600  years  before  great 
Homer  lived  and  sung,  for  we  cannot  assign  a  later 
date  than  2466  B.C.  to  the  close  of  that  shadowy 
eleventh  dynasty  of  the  Antefs,  who  ruled  at  Thebes. 

The  papyrus  from  which  Mr.  C.  W.  Goodwin  trans- 
lated the  dirge  is  of  later  date — viz.,  of  the  time  of 
Thothmes  III.,  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  1600  B.C.  ; 
but  this  only  goes  to  prove  how  favourite  a  hymn  for 
tomb-festivals  this  was  among  the  Egyptians  for 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT   EGYPT          187 

centuries.  That  there  were  many  copies  of  it  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  one  other  is  still  in 
existence,  and  is  deposited  in  the  Leyden  Museum. 
For  Mr.  Goodwin's  translation  of  the  dirge  cf. 
"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  p.  117,  or  Trans.  Soc. 
Bib.  Archceol.  vol.  iii.  pt.  i. 


1 88  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

FESTAL  DIRGE   OF  KING  ANTEF. 

2533-2466  B.C. 

The  Festal  Dirge  of  Antef,  king,  deceased, 
Writ  dear  before  the  player  on  the  harp. 

HAIL  the  good  man  and  the  great, 

Hail  the  worthy  passed  away ; 
Men  of  poor  or  proud  estate 

Find  one  end — the  clay. 

What  is  fortune  ?  say  the  wise.* 
Vanished  are  the  hearths  and  homes, 

What  he  does  or  thinks,  who  dies, 
None  to  tell  us  comes. 

Have  thy  heart's  desire,  be  glad, 
Use  the  ointment  while  you  live ; 

Be  in  gold  and  linen  clad, 
Take  what  gods  may  give. 

*  Literally,  I  have  heard  the  words  of  Imhotep  and  Hartatef. 
It  is  said  in  their  sayings,  "  After  all,  what  is  prosperity  ?  " 
Imhotep,  the  son  of  the  primeval  deity  Ptah,  was  the  mythical 
author  of  arts  and  sciences.  Hartatef  was  the  son  of  Menkaura, 
the  builder  of  the  third  pyramid,  to  whom  the  discovery  of  part 
of  the  "  Ritual,"  chap.  Ixiv.,  was  attributed.  These  references 
are  indications  of  the  great  antiquity  of  this  dirge. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  189 

For  the  day  shall  come  to  each 

When  earth's  voices  sound  no  more ; 

Dead  men  hear  no  mourners'  speech, 
Tears  cannot  restore. 

Eat  and  drink  in  peace  to-day, 
When  you  go,  your  goods  remain  ; 

He  who  fares  the  last,  long  way, 
Comes  not  back  again. 


190  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


THE  SONG  OF  THE  HARPER. 

EIGHTEENTH    DYNASTY,    1700-1400    B.C. 

THE  song  was  evidently  rhythmic,  and  was  written 
in  verses  of  equal  length  : 

"  Ured  urui  pu  ma 
Pa  shau  nefer  kheper 
Khetu  her  sebt  ter  rek  Ra 
Jamau  her  at  r  ast-sen." 

The  literal  translation  into  English  we  subjoin,  keeps 
both  the  verse  and  the  metre  as  near  as  may  be ;  and, 
as  will  be  noticed,  evidently  goes  to  a  harp  accom- 
paniment. 

The  original  was  found  in  the  tomb  of  Nefer  Hotep 
at  Abd  el-Kurnah,  near  Thebes,  and  is  a  good  speci- 
men of  Egyptian  poetry  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty, 
1700  to  1400  B.C. 

It  is  a  funeral  song  supposed  to  be  sung  by  a  harper 
at  the  anniversary  or  feast  in  remembrance  of  the  death 
of  the  patriarch  Neferhotep,  who  is  represented  sitting 
with  his  sister  and  wife,  Rennu-m-ast-neh,  his  son 
Ptahmes  and  his  daughter  Ta-khat  standing  by  their 


side,  while  the  harper  before  them  is  chanting.  The 
poet  addresses  his  words  to  the  dead,  as  well  as  the 
living,  assuming  in  his  fiction  that  the  former  is  still 
alive.  The  dirge  may  well  be  compared  with  the 
Festal  Dirge  of  King  Antef.  This  rendering  into 
verse  is  from  the  translation  of  Ludwig  Stern  in 
"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  vi.  p.  127. 


192  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


THE   SONG    OF    THE  HARPER 

1700-1400    B.C. 

This  is  the  song  the  harper  used  to  sing 
In  the  tomb  chapel  of  the  Osirian, 
The  blessed  Neferhotep,  Aineri 's  Priest. 

NEFERHOTEP,  great  and  blest, 

Of  a  truth  is  sleeping ; 
We  as  surety  for  his  rest 

All  good  charges  keeping. 
Since  the  day  when  Ra  and  Turn 

Ran  his  first  of  races, 
Fathers  pass,  and  after  come 

Children  in  their  places. 
Certain  as  great  Ra  *  appears, 

Sires  are  sons  begetting, 
Man  begets  and  woman  bears 

Sure  as  Turnf  is  setting. 
Breezes  from  the  morning  blown 

Every  man  inhaleth, 
To  his  place  then  going  down, 

Woman-born,  he  faileth. 

*  Ra  :  The  sun-god  generally, 
t  Turn  :  The  sun  at  its  setting. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  193. 

II. 

May  this  day  in  joy  return, 

Speed  it,  holy  father  ; 
Scent  these  oils  we  pour  and  burn, 

Take  the  flowers  we  gather. 
In  thy  heart,  as  in  thy  shrine, 

See  thy  sister  dwelling ; 
Round  her  arms  and  bosom  twine 

Lotus  flowers,  excelling. 
Lo  !  she  sits  beside  thee  close  ; 

Let  the  harp  delight  thee  ; 
Let  our  singing  banish  woes, 

Leave  the  cares  that  spite  thee. 
Joy  thee  till  the  pilgrim  band 

One  day  shall  have  started, 
Entering  to  thy  silent  land, 

Welcome,  and  long-parted. 

in. 

That  this  day  with  joy  may  speed, 

Patriarch,  grant  assistance  ; 
Whole  of  heart  and  pure  of  deed 

Past  from  earth's  existence. 
His  life  shared  the  common  lot, 

Here  is  no  sure  dwelling ; 
He  who  just  now  was,  is  not, 

And  his  place  past  telling. 

N 


194  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

So  it  has  been  since  the  sun 

Rose,  so  must  be,  O  man  ! 
Eyes  just  open,  then  as  one 

Never  born  of  woman. 
In  the  shades,  upon  the  brink 

Of  the  sacred  river, 
'Mid  the  ghosts  thy  soul  doth  drink 

Draughts  of  life  for  ever. 

IV. 

If  when  harvest  fails,  the  poor 

Cry  to  thee  for  feeding, 
Give,  so  honoured  evermore 

Shall  thy  name  be  speeding. 
Give,  so  to  thy  funeral  feast 

Crowds  will  come,  adoring ; 
In  his  panther  skin,  the  priest  * 

Wine  to  thee  outpouring. 
Cakes  of  bread  and  staves  of  song 

Will  be  thine,  elected 
Stand  before  god  Ra,  the  throng 

Of  thy  friends,  protected. 
Harvests  duly  shall  return, 

Nor  by  Shut  forsaken  ; 
While  in  hell  the  lost  ones  burn, 

Glorious  shalt  thou  waken. 


Priests  of  "  Chem,  the  Vivifier,"  wore  the  panther  skin. 
Shu :  Dryness  sunlight,  the  fruitful  principle  in  air. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  195 

V. 

Neferhotep,  pure  of  hand, 

Speed  the  day  we  pray  thee ; 
Not  the  buildings  thou  hast  planned 

Could  avail  to  stay  thee. 
All  his  wealth  this  little  earth 

For  his  rest  containeth, 
This  poor  ash  is  all  his  worth — 

Look  ye  !  what  remaineth. 
When  the  moments  came  that  he 

Sought  the  realms  of  heaven, 
Not  one  jot  might  added  be, 

Not  one  moment  given. 
They  whose  barns  are  crammed  with  corn, 

One  day  make  a  finish  ; 
Death  will  laugh  their  wealth  to  scorn, 

Death  their  pride  will  ?minish. 


VI. 

Friends,  ye  all  one  day  go  hence  : 

Be  your  hearts  discerning ; 
Mind  ye  of  the  bourne  from  whence 

There  is  no  returning. 
Honest  lives  will  then  have  proved 

Gain,  but  loathe  transgressing ; 
Be  ye  just,  for  justice,  loved, 

Brings  a  good  man  blessing. 


196  ^NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Be  we  coward,  be  we  brave, 

Rich  in  friends,  forsaken  ; 
None  of  us  escape  the  grave — 

All  alike  are  taken. 
Give,  of  thine  abundance  give  ! 

And  to  truth  attending, 
Blest  by  Isis  shalt  thou  live 

Happy,  to  thine  ending. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  197 

HYMN  OR  ODE  TO  PHARAOH. 

NINETEENTH    DYNASTY,  I4OO-I2OO  B.C.. 

THIS  hymn  is  from  the  Anastasi  papyri,  and,  though 
undated,  is  believed  to  belong  to  the  nineteenth 
dynasty.  It  is  interesting  for  two  reasons. 

It  shows  how  entirely  the  king  of  that  day  had 
been  identified  with  the  sun,  as  a  divinity,  or  rather  as 
a  living  image  or  incarnation  of  the  sun-god, 
and  suggests  that  the  Pharaoh  Meneptah,  Baenra- 
Meriamun,  the  immediate  successor  of  Rameses  II., 
was  living  at  a  time  when  it  was  very  necessary  to 
have  a  close  watch  kept  upon  the  doings  of  his  people, 
or  part  of  his  people,  and  apparently,  at  a  time  when 
some  great  conspiracy  had  just  been  discovered,  and 
brought  to  the  notice  of  him  who  "  had  millions  of 
ears,"  and  whose  eye  saw  "  everything  that  was  done 
in  secret." 

If  the  Pharaoh,  addressed  in  this  hymn,  was  indeed 
the  Pharaoh  of  the  Bondage,  we  may  guess  what  that 
conspiracy  was,  and  read  the  hymn  with  added  interest, 
in  the  light  that  is  let  in  upon  the  god-king's  character, 
by  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

For  the  prose  form  of  which  this  is  a  metrical  ren- 
dering cf.  Mr.  C.  W.  Goodwin's  translation,  "  Records 
of  the  Past,"  vol.  vi.  p.  101. 


NOTES   FOR  THE  NILE 


HYMN   OR    ODE    TO    PHARAOH 
MENEPTAH. 

1300    B.C. 

LONG  live  the  king  ! 

As  ambassadors  we  bring 

Message  to  the  royal  hall 

Where  he  reigns,  truth's  loving  lord  ; 

Message  to  the  sun's  house,  heaven  : 

Let  thine  ear  to  us  be  given, 

Thou  great  orb  that,  rising,  brightens 

And  enlightens 

Earth  with  all 

His  gifts  of  good  outpoured. 

Thou  the  image  art  of  him 

Who  doth  rise  with  morning's  glow. 

Into  caverns  dark  and  dim 

Gleams  the  glory  of  thy  face. 

Thou  dost  speak,  and  worlds  obey. 

Even  in  thy  sleeping-place, 

In  thy  palace,  thou  canst  know 

What  all  people  say. 

Million-eared,  thine  eye  is  bright, 

Brighter  than  the  morning  star, 

Strong  to  gaze  upon  the  sun. 

Privy  whisperings  that  are 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  199. 

Muttered  in  the  caves  beneath, 
Straight  into  thine  ear  ascend. 
Yea,  all  things  in  secret  done 
Come  into  thy  sight, 
Oh  Baenra  Meriamun, 
Thou  of  mercy  lord  and  friend 
Thou  dost  give  us  breath. 


200  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 


THE  DIRGE  OF  MENEPTAH. 

NINETEENTH  DYNASTY,  1400-  1 2OO  B.C. 

IT  is  uncertain  to  which  monarch  of  the  nineteenth 
dynasty  this  dirge  is  addressed.  The  Papyrus  Anas- 
tasi  No.  4,  British  Museum,  may  belong  to  the  reign 
either  of  Rameses  II.,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Bondage, 
I333B.C.,  orSetill.  Meneptah  III.,  1266  B.C.  Of  the 
latter  Pharaoh,  though  he  appears  to  have  reigned 
thirty-three  years,  there  are,  according  to  Brugsch,  no 
records  after  the  first  two  years  of  his  reign  ;  hence  it 
is  impossible,  from  the  allusion  to  his  triumph  over  the 
"  Syrians  "  and  "  negroes  "  in  the  poem,  to  determine  to 
which  of  the  Pharaohs  the  dirge  belongs.  Nor  is  there 
anything  upon  the  walls  of  his  little  temple,  lately  un- 
earthed, to  the  north-west  of  the  great  front  court  at 
Karnak,  so  far  as  I  could  discover,  to  throw  light  upon 
the  poem  ;  but  the  first  line  of  the  dirge  may  allude  to 
Seti's  interest  in  Karnak,  and  the  building  of  that  little 
three-chambered  temple.  It  is  probable  that  Seti  II. 
was  a  lover  of  literature,  for  that  beautiful  tale  of  the 
"  Two  Brothers,"  with  its  parallel  to  a  passage  in  the 
history  of  Joseph  (cf.  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ii. 
P-  137),  was  written  specially  for  him  when  he  was 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  201 

a  crown  prince,  His  sepulchre  in  Biban  el-Muluk,  at 
Thebes,  is  certainly  much  more  magnificent  than  is 
the  uninteresting  tomb  of  Rameses  II.  One  must  not 
press  this,  but  the  poem  contains  the  suggestion  that 
the  king  was  literary,  and  had  a  magnificent  tomb. 
The  poetical  rendering  follows  the  text  of  the  transla- 
tion by  S.  Birch,  LL.D,  "Records  of  the  Past," 
vol.  iv.  p.  51. 


202  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


THE  DIRGE  OF  MENEPTAH. 

1333-1266    B.C. 

AMEN  gladdened  thine  heart, 

Gave  thee  a  good  old  age, 

Pleasure  followed  thee  near, 

Thy  words  were  the  words  of  a  sage ; 

Sound  was  thine  arm,  and  clear 

Thine  eye,  its  arrows  could  dart ; 

Now  thou  art  gone  to  the  breaks 

In  the  West,  where  the  sun-boat  takes 

The  dead,  for  Amenti  who  steer. 

Thou  hast  guided  thy  golden  car, 

With  the  whip  in  thine  hand  thou  hast  gone, 

Yoked  were  thy  horses,  and  followed 

Thy  triumph,  the  Syrian  foe 

And  the  negroes  taken  in  war, 

Proof  of  the  deeds  thou  hast  done. 

So  to  thy  boat  didst  thou  go, 

Thy  boat  of  acacia-wood  hollowed  ; 

So  to  the  tower  of  thy  home, 

Built  by  thine  hand,  didst  thou  come. 

Then  was  their  sacrifice — bread, 

Wine,  and  meat  for  thy  mouth  ; 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  203 

The  ox  was  felled,  and  the  jar 

Broached,  and  we  sang  thee  a  song. 

The  anointer  anointed  thine  head 

With  balsam  fresh  from  the  South ; 

All  the  pool-flowers  that  blow 

The  chief  of  thy  gardeners  brought ; 

All  the  winged  fowls  we  know 

The  chief  of  thy  bailiffs  had  caught — 

Offerings  fair  for  thy  wish, 

And  thy  fishermen  brought  to  thee  fish. 

Came  on  thy  tomb-chapel  wall 

Thy  galley  from  Syria  along, 

Laden  with  spoils  that  were  good ; 

Horses  were  there  in  thy  stall, 

And  there  thy  slave-maidens  stood, 

Slave-maidens  helpful  and  strong ; 

And  ever  beneath  thy  sword 

Were  thine  enemies  seen  to  fall ; 

None  were  opposed  to  thy  word. 

But  lo  !  to  the  judgment-hall 

Of  Osiris  now  thou  art  gone, 

Victor  and  justified  one. 


204  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


HYMN  TO  AMEN  RA. 

NINETEENTH    DYNASTY,    I4OO-I2OO    B.C. 

THIS  celebrated  hymn,  of  which  a  rendering  is 
given,  is  taken  from  papyrus  No.  17  in  the  Gizeh 
Museum,  a  facsimile  of  which  has  been  published  by 
M.  Mariette. 

It  is  contained  in  a  papyrus  of  small  size,  in  eleven 
pages  of  moderate  length,  and  has  the  advantage  of 
being  written  in  a  legible  hand ;  it  is  almost  perfect,  and 
is  free  from  any  great  difficulties  for  the  translator. 
The  beginning  of  each  verse  is  indicated  in  the  original, 
by  small  rubricated  letters. 

From  the  handwriting,  it  is  judged  to  belong  to  the 
nineteenth  dynasty,  the  dynasty  that  gave  us  Seti  I. 
and  his  son,  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Bondage,  Rameses  II., 
but  it  purports  to  be  a  copy  of  a  much  older  com- 
position. Doubtless  it  is  a  hymn  which  was  in 
common  use  at  both  centres  of  sun-worship — Karnak, 
or  Aptu,  and  An,  or  Heliopolis  ;  for  all  we  know,  it 
may  have  been  used  from  the  time  of  Usertsen,  of  the 
twelfth  dynasty,  onwards — i.e.,  from  2400  B.C.  to  the 
end  of  the  Egyptian  dynasties. 

It   has    all  the  appearance   of  being   a  liturgical 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  205 

hymn,  that  had  many  additions  made  to  it,  and  if  we 
complain  of  the  weariness  of  its  repetitions,  we  have 
but  to  think  of  the  liturgies  of  the  Western  Church,  to 
see  how  naturally  these  additions  would  be  made. 
The  dominant  note  of  the  absolute  oneness,  the  unity 
of  the  godhead  of  Amen  Ra  under  all  his  forms, 
is  very  remarkable.  There  is  throughout,  some  awk- 
wardness of  expression  which  the  literal  translator 
cannot  escape  from,  by  reason  of  the  way  in  which, 
whilst  now  and  again  the  god  is  addressed  in  the  first 
person,  there  is  always  a  swift  transition  to  the  third 
person — a  hint,  perhaps,  of  that  awe  in  which  the  deity 
was  held,  and  which  allowed  the  worshipper  to  speak 
of,  rather  than  to,  the  divine  one. 

Readers  should  compare  Mr.  C.  W.  Goodwin's 
translation  of  this  famous  hymn,  as  given  in  "  Records 
of  the  Past,"  vol.  ii.  p.  129,  with  the  admirable  version, 
by  Mr.  Wallis  Budge,  of  M.  Gre"baut's  later  trans- 
lation, as  given  in  "  Notes  for  Travellers  in  Egypt," 
p.  80. 


206  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


HYMN  TO  AMEN  RA* 

1400-1200    B.C 
I. 

PRAISE  to  Amen  Ra  we  give, 
First  of  gods,  in  An  the  bull, 
Lord  beloved  and  beautiful, 
By  whose  warmth  fair  cattle  live  ; 
Hail  the  king  of  double  throne, 
Chief  in  Karnak;  of  his  fields 

*  Amen  Ra  was  said  to  be  the  son  of  Ptah,  or  Vulcan,  whose 
chief  place  of  honour  and  worship  was  Memphis. 

Originally  a  local  deity,  Amen  Ra  became  in  later  times,  from 
the  twelfth  dynasty  onward,  a  god  of  great  importance,  and  his 
worship  culminated,  probably  about  the  nineteenth  dynasty. 

He  was  adored  at  An,  or  Heliopolis,  the  university  city  of 
Moses'  time  ;  but  the  chief  seat  of  his  worship  was  Thebes,  or 
Karnak,  called  in  this  hymn  Apts,  or  Aptu. 

Here  at  "Apts,"  with  Mut  and  Chonsu  as  other  persons  of 
the  Theban  triad,  Amen  Ra  was  the  presiding  deity.  All  that 
splendour  of  building  could  do,  was  done  from  the  time  of  Amen  - 
nemhat  I.,  2466  B.C.,  to  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies,  to  give  him 
honour. 

He  is  represented  on  the  monuments  as  wearing  the  tall 
feathers  of  law  or  justice  in  his  crown,  and  as  holding  the 
scourge  of  rule,  the  crook  of  dominion,  the  hooked  sceptre  of 
power,  and  the  tower  of  stability. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  207 

Mighty  head ; 

Bull,  by  whom  himself  was  bred, 

Stretching  out  his  feet  afar 

Proudly  to  the  southern  zone, 

Proudly  o'er  the  Asian  plains,* 

Lord  and  Prince  of  Araby, 

Lord  of  all  the  breadth  of  sky, 

Earth's  first  son ; 

Lord  of  things  that  are, 

Great  creator  who  sustains 

All  that  earth  or  heaven  yields. 

n. 

One  in  time  and  works  among 
The  high  gods'  throng, 
Beautiful, 
The  mighty  bull, 
'Mid  the  gods  pre-eminent, 
Lord  of  law,  and  president, 
Father  of  the  gods  and  men, 
Maker  of  the  beasts  that  be, 
Lord  of  all  existences, 
Giver  of  the  fruitful  trees, 
Filling  house  and  cattle-pen 
With  the  staff  of  daily  food. 
Son  of  Vulcan,  fair  and  good, 
Lo  !  the  gods  adore  and  love, 

*  Mat'au,  a  country  in  Asia. 


208  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

By  the  gods  is  honour  paid 

To  the  god  who  all  things  made — 

Things  below  and  things  above. 

Lo,  he  passes  through  the  sky, 

Sailing  in  tranquillity, 

Blessing  both  the  lands  with  light, 

King  of  north  and  king  of  south, 

Giving  law  with  truthful  mouth, 

Prince  of  this  world,  great  in  might 

Lord  of  terror  and  affright — 

He  who  takes 

The  earth,  and  makes 

It  like  to  his  divinity. 

in. 

He  hath  forms,  yea,  very  many, 
More  than  any 
Other  god. 

In  his  beauties  gods  rejoice, 
To  his  praise  they  lift  their  voice 
And  adore  his  name, 
When  he  comes  from  his  abode, 
Rising  crowned  with  flame, 
Glorious  the  two  lands  above. 
He  whose  fragrances  they  love, 
Incense-born  and  dewy-sweet, 
When  he  comes  from  Araby, 
When  his  feet 
Over  plains  of  Asia  fly, 


THE  HYMNS    OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  209 

And  his  smile 

Beams  along  the  land  divine,* 
Where  the  Red  Sea  waters  shine, 
Southward  of  the  land  of  Nile. 

IV. 

At  his  feet  the  gods  attend, 

In  acknowledgment  they  bend 

To  his  awful  majesty. 

Lord  of  fear  and  victory, 

Mighty  one  of  will, 

Master  of  the  crowns,  and  king, 

Making  green  the  offering, 

Giver  of  the  holy  food, 

Pure  and  good. 

We  adore  with  salutation 

Thee  who  called  into  creation 

Even  the  gods ;  thy  skill, 

In  love, 

Hath  outstretched  the  heavens  above,t 

And  hath  set  the  earth's  foundation  ! 

v. 

Tireless  watcher,  AmsuJ  Amen, 
Lord  of  all  eternity, 

*  Neter-ta — that  is,  divine  land — the  name  given  on  the  monu- 
ments to  indicate  the  lands  which  lie  to  the  south  of  Egypt 
between  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea.  t  Cf.  Psalm  ex,  3. 

Amsu  was  one  of  the  forms  of  Amen  Ra. 


2X0  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Maker  of  the  lasting  morns, 

Prayer  and  praises  rise  to  thee  ! 

Thou  the  head  of  Karnak,  Ra  !  men 

Bow  before  thee 

And  adore  thee, 

Beautiful  with  double  horns. 

Lord  of  the  Uraeus  crown, 

Plumed,  exalted  high  to  wear 

Snow-white  helm,  tiara  fair, 

With  the  grace 

Of  the  serpent,  and  the  disk 

Of  the  double  basilisk, 

As  adornment  to  his  face. 

In  his  own 

Temple  are  his  emblems  known, 

Helmet-cap  and  double  crown ; 

Lo,  benign  of  face,  he  deigns 

Take  the  Atef  crown*  in  hands, 

Crowned  with  Sechti  crown  t  he  stands, 

And  as  lord  of  life  he  reigns 

With  the  lotus-handled  rod 

And  the  scourge,  f  a  sceptred  god. 


*  The  Atef  crown  is  the  curious  double-plumed  crown  above 
ram's  horns  which  Khnemu  is  generally  seen  to  wear. 

t  The  Sechti  crown  is  made  up  by  a  conjunction  of  the  red  and 
the  white  crowns  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  Horus  is  generally 
represented  as  wearing  it. 

I  This    is  the  .scourge  growing   out   of   a  lotus,   called  the 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  211 

VI. 

Gracious  Ruler,  rising  bright, 
Crowned  with  crown  of  silver  white, 
Lord  of  rays, 
Great  creator  of  the  light, 
Unto  him  the  gods  give  praise, 
And  he  stretches  from  above 
Hands  of  love  to  them  that  love  ; 
But  the  rebels  fall,  his  eyes 
Fiercely  flame  upon  the  foe. 
See,  his  arrows  pierce  the  skies 
With  their  ruddy  glow, 
And  the  Naka  *  serpent  flies, 
And  disgorging  dies 
In  the  dark  below. 

VII. 

Hail  to  thee,  Lord  God  of  law, 
Thee  whose  shrine  none  ever  saw ; 

Amsu  sceptre,  which  is  held  by  Amen  Ra,  who  is  addressed  as 
Amsu  Amen. 

*  Nak,  another  name  for  Apepi,  the  demon-serpent  of  cloud 
and  mist  and  night,  who  is  generally  represented  with  knives  or 
daggers  stuck  into  his  back.  He  was  supposed  to  swallow  up 
the  sun  daily,  and  during  the  hours  of  darkness  the  battle  be- 
tween the  sun-god  Ra  and  the  terrible  serpent  was  supposed  to 
be  going  on,  but  the  sun  was  always  victorious ;  Apepi  or  Nak 
was  vanquished ;  night  fled  away,  and  morning  appeared  in  the 
•east. 


212  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Lord  of  gods,  God-Chepera,* 

Sailing  in  thy  boat  along, 

By  whose  word  the  great  gods  are. 

Thee  we  hail  in  song 

Atmu,f  maker  of  mankind. 

Forms  to  all  the  men  that  be, 

Colour  and  variety, 

By  his  fiat  are  assigned. 

Unto  him  the  poor  men  cry,J 

And  he  helps  them  in  distress  ; 

Kind  of  heart  is  he  to  all 

Who  upon  him  call, 

God  Almighty  to  deliver 

Him  that  is  afraid  and  meek, 

From  the  great  ones  who  oppress, 

Judging  ever 

'Twixt  the  strong  and  weak. 

VIII. 

Of  intelligence  the  Lord, 
Wisdom  ever  is  the  word 
That  his  mouth  doth  give. 
At  his  will  the  Nile-god  moves, 
And  that  lord  the  palm-tree  loves, 

*  Creator. 

t  Atmu,  the  "  closer ,"  was  the  form  under  which  the  setting 
sun  was  worshipped. 
J  Cf.  Psalm  xxxiv.  17  ;  xxxv.  10. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  213 

Comes  to  make  us  mortals  live. 

He  all  work  on  earth  advances, 

Working  with  us  in  the  sky, 

Everything  that  loves  the  light 

Leaps  to  meet  him, 

And  rejoicing  in  his  glances, 

Beauteous,  bright, 

All  gods  greet  him, 

Glad  at  heart  when  he  is  by. 

IX. 

Ra,  in  Karnak  mighty  lord, 

When  he  rises  in  his  shrine ; 

Ani,*  lord  of  those  who  shout 

When  the  new  moon's  horns  do  shine  ; 

When  the  six  days  have  increased 

His  silver  rim, 

Thou  dost  for  him 

Make  the  feast ; 

When  the  moon  is  fading  out, 

Still  thou  art  adored. 

Prince  !  life,  health,  and  strength  to  thee  I 

Lord  of  gods,  whose  rising  flame 

Smiles  along  the  level  land  ! 

President  of  those  who  sleep  f 

With  our  fathers  in  the  sand ; 

*  Ani  is  one  of  the  forms  of  the  sun-god  Ra. 
t  Auker,  a  common  name  for  a  necropolis. 


2.14  NOTES   FOR   THE  NILE 

Lo  !  his  name  from  us  is  deep- 
Hidden  in  his  secret  name 
Amen  * — none  may  understand. 

x. 

Hail  thou  joyous  Sun,  to  thee 
In  thy  pure  tranquillity  ; 
Lord  of  all  hearts'  exaltation, 
Lord  of  crown,  whose  decoration 
Are  the  plumes,  and  fair  to  see 
With  tiara,  and  the  tall 
Milk-white  helm ;  the  gods  above 
Look  upon  thy  face  with  love, 
With  the  double  crown  of  power, 
Crown  of  Upper,  crown  of  Lower 
Egypt,  on  thy  brow, 
Passing  thro'  the  double  lauds. 
Sending  forth  when  thou  dost  rise 
Love-looks  from  thy  lovely  eyes. 
Lo !  the  dead  men  in  the  sands 
Are  in  raptures  of  delight 
When  thou  risest,  shining  bright ; 
When  thou  burnest  at  the  noon, 
Cattle  faint  and  swoon. 
Loved  thou  art  when  in  the  south 
Thou  thy  might  art  pouring  forth, 
When  thou  shinest  in  the  north 
Ah  !  how  pleasant  is  thy  mouth. 

*  Amen,  hidden. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  215 

Lo  !  the  beauties  of  thy  face 
Steal  the  hearts  of  all  away ; 
Yea,  for  love  of  thee  our  arms 
Fail,  we  tremble  at  thy  charms, 
And  the  glory  of  thy  grace 
Melts  us  day  by  day. 

XI. 

Form  The  All-Creator,  One ! 

Maker  of  existences ! 

Men  came  forth  from  his  two  eyes, 

From  his  mouth  the  gods  began. 

For  the  ox,  he  is  the  giver 

Of  green  herb — of  corn,  for  man  ; 

By  him  fishes  fill  the  river, 

Winged  fowl  fill  the  sky ; 

To  the  egg  its  being's  breath 

He  ordaineth ; 

And  sustaineth 

Things  that  creep  on  earth  beneath, 

Things  that  upward  fly ; 

Even  for  the  rats  that  run 

To  their  hiding-holes,  the  sun 

Bringeth  food,  and  to  the  nest 

Where  the  sweet  birds  rest. 

XII. 

Hail  to  thee,  thou  Only  One, 
Maker  of  these  things  alone  ! 


216  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Many  are  his  forms  of  might : 
Lo !  he  watches  thro'  the  night, 
Ever  wakeful,  o'er  the  nation ; 
Yea,  and  for  the  brute  creation 
Brings  forth  good  at  morning  light. 
Amen,  Midday  Sun,  and  thou, 
Evening  Sunshine,  Atmu  hight, 
Harmachis,  at  morn — before  thee 
All  the  people  bow, 
-    All  the  people  do  adore  thee, 

Saying,  "  Praise  with  voice  and  song 
To  the  god  who  rests  among 
Us  whom  he  hath  made, 
Therefore  homage  shall  be  paid." 

XIII. 

"  Hail  to  thee  ! "  all  creatures  cry, 
Every  land  brings  praise  to  thee, 
From  the  highest  height  of  sky 
To  the  breadth  of  all  the  land. 
To  the  depths  of  all  the  sea. 
Yea,  before  thy  majesty 
Gods  in  full  obedience  stand ; 
Bowing,  at  thy  knees  they  fall 
To  exalt  the  will  divine 
That  made  them  thine  ; 
They  rejoice  to  meet  thee, 
Crying  out,  they  greet  thee, 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  217 

Saying  :  "  Father  of  us  all, 
Come  in  peace,  for  thou  hast  raised 
Heaven,  and  set  the  earth ;  therefore  thou 
shall  be  praised." 

• 

XIV. 

Maker  of  all  things  that  be, 
Lord  of  each  existing  thing, 
Prince  of  life  and  mortal  wealth, 
Body's  strength  and  body's  health, 
To  thee  for  our  own  creation 
Gratitude  and  adoration 
Lo  !  we  bring  ; 
And  we  sing, 

"  Praise,  unto  our  God  be  praise, 
For  his  rest  upon  our  ways, 
For  his  mercy  all  our  days." 

xv. 

Hail  to  thee  that  makest  all, 
Lord  of  law,  of  gods  the  father ; 
Mortals  live  but  at  thy  call, 
And  the  beasts  that  gather 
Herb.    Corn-bringer,  thou  dost  give 
Grass  upon  the  thousand  hills, 
So  the  cattle  live  ! 
Hail !  all  hail !  great  Amen,  bull, 
Thou  of  aspect  beautiful, 
Karnak  all  thine  honour  fills 


218  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

With  the  risings  in  thy  shrine, 

And  at  An  in  festival 

See  upon  thy  brow 

Bright  the  glories  shine 

Of  thy  double  coronet ; 

Judge  of  Horus,  thou 

In  that  three  days'  fight  with  Set,* 

In  the  giant  hall. 

XVI. 

Chief  in  cycle  of  the  gods, 
One  alone  without  compare,! 
In  the  first  of  his  abodes 
Karnak  chief,  and  Ani  great 
Whom,  in  circle  of  the  gods, 
First  we  celebrate, 
Making  law  his  daily  care, 
Lord  of  the  horizon's  birth, 
Horus  of  the  east. 
Gold  and  silver  without  measure, 
He  hath  hidden  in  the  earth, 
Hath  created  for  his  pleasure 
Lapis  lazuli  of  worth, 

*  The  26th  day  of  Thoth  in  the  old  Egyptian  calendar  was 
marked  "  thrice  unlucky  ;  do  nothing  at  all  on  this  day  ;  it  is 
the  day  on  which  Horus  fought  with  Set." 

t  Cf.  Deut.  vi.  i. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  219 

Therefore,  O  thou  beauteous  face  ! 
Incense  bring  we  in  our  hands — 
Perfume  from  the  Eastern  race, 
Shall  be  thine 

When  thou  comest  to  thy  feast, 
Throned  above  the  double  lands, 
Karnak's  Lord, 
And  king  adored, 
Ani  in  thy  shrine. 

XVII. 

King  alone, 

Of  gods  the  One, 

Many  myriads  are  thy  names — 

Yea,  their  number  is  unknown  : 

Shining  in  the  golden  morn, 

Setting  in  the  golden  west, 

Every  time  that  he  is  born, 

Lo  !  he  scatters  with  his  flames 

All  his  enemies. 

Thoth  exalts  his  glorious  eyes, 

Robes  him  for  his  rest, 

With  the  splendour  of  his  choice  ; 

In  his  goodness  gods  rejoice, 

For  he  lifteth  up  the  heart. 

Lord  of  the  great  boat,*  he  steers 

*The  Sekti  boat. 


220  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Every  dawn  from  out  the  east ; 
Lord  of  the  great  boat,*  that  nears 
Every  night  the  west, 
Travelling  through  the  sky  in  rest. 

XVIII. 

How  thy  sailors  cheer  and  shout, 
Seeing  Nak,  the  serpent's  rout, 
Stabbed  and  slashed  by  knife  on  knife, 
While  the  flames  upon  him  play — 
All  his  foul  and  horrid  life 
From  his  body  beaten  out, 
And  his  feet  cast  right  away. 

XIX. 

Then  the  gods  lift  up  their  voices, 
Ra  has  slaked  his  soul  at  length, 
Heliopolis  is  glad, 
Atmu,  Closer  of  the  day, 
Is  victorious  in  the  fray — 
Heliopolis  rejoices  ; 
And  the  Lady  of  our  life,* 
Isis,  joys  in  heart  to  know 
Of  the  serpent's  overthrow, 
Apepi  her  good  lord's  foe. 
Yea,  the  gods  make  salutation, 

*  The  Atet  boat.  t  Nebt-anch. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT 

Seeing  Ra  renew  his  strength : 

Very  low 

In  their  shrines,  with  adoration, 

And  prostration, 

See  they  bow. 

xx. 

Saved  from  out  the  serpent's  jaw, 

Image  of  the  gods  of  law, 

Thou  at  Karnak,  by  the  river, 

Art  the  lord ; 

In  thy  name  of  Great  Law-giver, 

There  thou  art  adored. 

Lord,  of  sacrifice  we  bring 

Mighty  bull  of  offering, 

In  thy  name  of  Amen,  Bull, 

Of  his  mother  wonderful ; 

By  whose  breath  each  man  is  liver, 

Making  all  the  things  that  are, 

Or  that  ever  came, 

In  thy  double  name, 

Atmu-Chepera.* 

XXI. 

Mighty  Law  !  all  men  by  thee, 
Feel  the  joy  of  them  that  feast ; 
Mighty  Law  !  thy  gladness,  see, 
Lights  the  face  and  warms  the  breast ; 

Atmu,  as  closer  of  the  day  ;  Chopera,  as  creator. 


222  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Form  he  is  of  attribute 

Holiest,  for  man  or  brute, 

And  upon  his  lofty  brows, 

Either  side  the  royal  disk, 

Flies  the  double  basilisk, 

Flames  and  glows. 

Lo,  the  dead  in  many  nations 

Seek  unto  his  morn, 

Turn  to  him  the  generations 

Of  the  yet  unborn, 

And  his  glorious  coming  forth 

Gladdens  South,  and  gladdens  North. 

Hail !  great  Amen  Ra,  the  lord 

Of  the  double  throne  adored  ! 

Lo  !  his  native  dwelling-place 

Loves  the  shining  of  his  face. 

[At  the  end  of  the  papyrus  come  these  words  :  "  Finished 
well  as  it  is  found."  We  may  conclude  that  these  are  the  words 
of  the  transcriber  from  the  older  papyrus.] 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  223 


HYMN  TO  THE  NILE. 

NINETEENTH   DYNASTY,    1400-! 2OO    B.C. 

THIS  hymn  is  specially  interesting,  as  being  of  the 
time  of  Moses,  and  of  Israel  in  Egypt.  The  king 
spoken  of,  in  verses  xii.  and  xiv.  is  the  king  Mene- 
ptah  II.,  son  of  Rameses  II.,  who  is  generally  con- 
sidered to  have  been  the  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus,  and 
who  reigned  between  1300  B.C.  and  1266  B.C. 

The  author  of  it  is  well  known  by  name.  Among  the 
literary  stars  that  shone  at  the  court  of  Meneptah — 
Qua-ga-bu,  Hor,  Merem-aput,  Bek-en-ptah,  Hor-a, 
Amon-masu,  Su-an-ro,  Ser-ptah — none  was,  in  all 
probability,  greater  than  the  temple-scribe  who  wrote 
for  the  king's  son,  Seti  II.,  Meneptah  III.,  when  he 
was  still  Crown  Prince,  the  marvellous  tale  of  "  The 
Two  Brothers."  That  writer  was  Anna,  Enna,  or 
Ennana,  and  was  the  author,  also,  of  this  famous 
"  Hymn  to  the  Nile." 

The  hymn  was  probably  sung  throughout  Egypt  at 
the  great  Nile  festival,  the  "  Niloa,"  or  invocation  of 
the  blessings  of  the  inundation,  made  to  the  tute- 
lary deity  of  the  Nile,  "  Hapi,"  who  is  represented 


224  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

generally  on  the  monuments,'  in  green  and  red  paint,  as 
denoting  the  colour  of  the  Nile,  before  and  at  the  time 
of  inundation. 

Travellers  up  Nile  will  doubtless  note  the  three 
tablets  of  offerings,  carved  in  the  sandstone  rock  at 
Gebel  Silsileh. 

In  the  upper  part  of  this,  the  king  is  seen  making  an 
incense-offering  to  the  Theban  triad,  Amen,  Mut, 
Khonsu,  and  a  drink-offering  to  Harmachis,  Ptah, 
Hapi.  From  the  inscription  we  gather,  that  the  Nile 
festivals  had  fallen  into  neglect,  and  that  Rameses  II. 
re-instituted  the  observances  of  the  great  festivals :  one 
on  the  isth  of  Epiphi  (May  31),  when  the  river  was 
thought  to  come  forth  from  his  two  chasms  ;  and  the 
other  on  the  i5th  of  Thoth  (August  4),  when  the 
inundation  arrived  at  Khennut,  or  Gebel  Silsileh.  The 
enthusiasm  for  Nile  worship  which  Rameses  II.  felt, 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact,  that  in  addition  to 
these  he,  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  1333  B.C., 
ordained  similar  offerings  for  the  solemnity  that 
brought  the  ancient  Nile  festivals  to  a  close,  which 
was  called  the  closing  of  the  Nile  book,  and  which 
took  place  on  the  ist  of  Choiak  (October  18). 

It  is  thought  (see  Ludwig  Stern's  Introduction  to 
"Ancient  Festivals  of  the  Nile,"  "Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  x.  p.  39)  that  the  Epiphi  day  corresponded 
with  the  Niloa,  spoken  of  by  Heliodorus. 

It  seems  that,  in  addition  to  this  May  festival  of 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  225 

the  Nile,  as  ordained  by  Rameses  II.,  there  was  one 
which  Heliodorus  heard  of,  as  taking  place  a  month 
earlier — viz.,  on  the  i 5th  of  Payni  (May  i).  Early 
Moslem  historians  tell  us  that  it  was  at  this  earlier 
festival,  which  they  put  at  the  end  of  April,  i2th  of 
Payni  (April  28),  that  the  Egyptians  entreated  the 
river-god  for  a  plentiful  inundation,  by  the  sacrifice  of 
a  virgin.  This  festival  seems  to  have  been  continued 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Arab  occupation. 

The  Copts  continued  what  may  have  been  a  relic  of 
this  festival,  to  far  later  times,  when  they  cast  a  coffin, 
with  a  mummy's  finger  in  it,  into  the  river  Nile. 

The  modern  Copts  still  preserve  a  memory  of  this 
martyrs'  festival  in  their  almanac,  on  the  nth  of 
Payni  (April  27),  called  the  "  Lailet  Nuzul  en-Nuktah," 
when  a  drop  is  believed  to  fall  into  the  Nile,  and  to 
cause  its  rising.* 

According  to  Heliodorus  t  it  was  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal festivals  of  the  Egyptians.  It  took  place  about 
the  summer  solstice. 

"When  the  river  began  to  rise"  ....  Libanius 
asserts  that  "  these  rites  were  deemed  of  so  much  im- 
portance to  the  Egyptians  that,  unless  they  were  per- 
formed at  the  proper  season  and  in  a  becoming 
manner,  by  the  persons  appointed  to  this  duty,  they 

*  Cf.  Lane's  "  Modern  Egyptians,"  chap.  xxvi. 
t  Cf.  Wilkinson's  "  Ancient  Egyptians,"  vol.  i.  chap.  iv.  p.  282. 

P 


226  ,         NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

felt  persuaded  that  the  Nile  would  refuse  to  rise  and 
inundate  the  land.  Their  full  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
the  ceremony,  secured  its  annual  performance  on  a 
grand  scale.  Men  and  women  assembled,  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  in  the  towns  of  their  respective 
nomes.  Grand  festivals  were  proclaimed,  and  all 
the  enjoyments  of  the  table  were  united  with  the 
solemnity  of  a  holy  festival. 

"  Music,  the  dance,  and  appropriate  hymns  marked 
the  respect  they  felt  for  the  deity ;  and  a  wooden 
statue  of  the  river-god  was  carried  by  the  priests 
through  the  villages,  in  solemn  procession,  that  all 
might  appear  to  be  honoured  by  his  presence,  while 
invoking  the  blessings  he  was  about  to  confer." 

According  to  Seneca,  the  priests  at  Philae  propitiated 
the  deity,  by  throwing  in  offerings  of  gold.  Be  that  as 
it  may,  the  Nile,  which  begins  to  rise  at  the  end  of 
May,  goes  on  rising  till  mid-October.  But  nowadays 
the  principal  festival,  which  is  doubtless  a  relic  of  old 
times,  perhaps  of  the  festival  ordered  by  Rameses,  on 
the  1 5th  day  of  Thoth  (August  4),  is  the  "Mdsim  el 
Khaleeg "  at  Cairo,  in  the  second  or  third  week  in 
August,  when,  after  the  criers  have  gone  through  the 
city,  crying  the  height  of  the  Nile  in  the  Nilometre  at 
Rhoda,  the  Khedive,  in  the  presence  of  State  officials 
and  a  vast  concourse  of  people  who  have  gathered 
from  all  parts,  with  booths  and  singers,  and  music- 
makers  and  "  fantasia,"  cuts  the  dam,  and  lets  the 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  227 

High  Nile  water  run  through  the  city  in  the  old  canal- 
bed. 

As  we  gaze  upon  that  motley  crowd,  and  see  the 
heifer  slain  for  "  Manganiyeh,"  or  distribution  of  food 
to  the  people,  and  note  the  joy  upon  the  faces  of  the 
multitude,  and  listen  to  the  curious  music  from  the 
players  squat  upon  the  ground,  we  are  carried  back,  in 
thought,  to  the  old  Nile  festivals  of  Pharaoh-days, 
and  hear  again  within  our  ears  the  "  Hymn  to  the 
Nile,"  that  Ennana  wrote  in  the  time  of  Meneptah  II. 

Two  copies  of  this  hymn  have  been  preserved  to  us, 
and  may  be  seen  at  the  British  Museum,  among  the 
select  papyri  (Sallier  II.  p.  n,  and  Anastasi  VII.) 

The  poem  is  interesting  specially,  as  identifying  the 
Nile  with  Ra,  Amon,  Ptah,  and  other  gods,  and  as 
assuring  us  of  the  complete  identification  of  the  reign- 
ing monarch  with  deity,  as  making  us  realise  how 
entirely  unknown  th6  sources  of  the  Nile  were  at  that 
day,  and  how  the  mystery  of  its  rising  affected  the 
Egyptians  with  the  thought  of  a  hand  unseen,  that 
worked  the  yearly  miracle  of  inundation,  and  gave  its 
yearly  blessing. 

Readers  cannot  fail  to  note  some  points  of  resem- 
blance to  the  old  Hebrew  poems ;  there  are,  here  and 
there,  expressions  that  would  almost  make  one  believe 
that  the  Hebrew  Psalmist  had  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  works  of  the  Egyptian  hymn-writer. 

Not  the  least  remarkable  passage  in  the  hymn  is 


228  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

that  contained  in  verses  five  and  six,  whence  it  would 
appear  that,  notwithstanding  the  hints  of  idolatrous 
worship  throughout  the  poem,  and  the  previous 
assertions  of  the  hymn-writer  that  it  is  to  the  Nile  and 
its  inundation  simply,  that  offerings  are  made  and  oxen 
slain,  there  is  an  unmistakable  reference  to  the 
pure  and  noble  worship  of  One  God,  a  Supreme  God, 
Unknown  and  Inconceivable,  a  Spirit  Invisible,  who 
"  dwelleth  not  in  temples  made  with  hands,"  and  for 
whom  there  is  no  temple  that  can  contain  him. 
Solomon,  at  his  most  exalted  moment,  breathes  no 
more  spiritual  thought  than  Ennana  here  gives  utter- 
ance to. 

The  metrical  structure  of  the  poem  is  also  remark- 
able. It  is  divided  into  stanzas,  containing  on  an 
average,  ten  couplets  each.  The  first  word  of  each 
stanza  is  written  in  red  letters,  each  clause  is  brought 
to  a  close  by  a  red  point,  and  is  made  up  of  the  same 
number  of  complete  phrases.  Prof.  Maspero  was  the 
first  to  translate  this  religious  poem,  in  the  year  1868. 
Paul  Guieysse  has  given  the  latest  translation  in  the 
second  series  of  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iii.  p.  48. 
The  prose  translation,  from  which  this  metrical  ren- 
dering has  been  made,  is  by  the  Rev.  F.  C.  Cook 
{"  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  iv.  p.  105). 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT.  229 

HYMN  TO  THE  NILE. 

1300-1266    B.C. 
I. 

HAIL,  all  hail,  O  Nile,  to  thee  ! 
To  this  land  thyself  thou  showest, 
Coming  tranquilly  to  give 
Life,  that  Egypt  so  may  live : 
Ammon,  hidden  is  thy  source, 
Hidden  thy  mysterious  course, 
But  it  fills  our  hearts  with  glee  ! 
Thou  the  gardens  overflowest, 
With  their  flowers  beloved  of  Ra  ;  * 
Thou,  for  all  the  beasts  that  are, 
Glorious  river, 
Art  life-giver; 

To  our  fair  fields  ceaselessly, 
Thou  thy  waters  dost  supply, 
And  dost  come 

Thro'  the  middle  plain  descending, 
Like  the  sun  thro'  middle  sky, 
Loving  good,  and  without  ending, 
Bringing  corn  for  granary ; 

*  The  sun-god  was  represented  as  delighting  in  flowers  ;  see 
Ritual  clxxxi. 


230  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Giving  light  to  every  home, 
O  thou  mighty  Ptah. 

ii. 

Lord  of  fish,  when  comes  the  flood, 
Ravening  birds  forsake  our  fields, 
Maker  of  the  spelt  for  food, 
And  of  all  the  corn-land  yields  ; 
He  it  is  by  whose  will,  stand 
Strong  the  temples  of  the  land. 
Hater  of  the  idle  hand, 
To  the  starving  multitude 
He  gives  labour,  for  the  gods 
Grieve  in  their  august  abodes 
Over  idle  hands,  and  then 
Cometh  sorrow  unto  men. 

in. 

He  unto  the  oxen's  feet 
Openeth  all  the  ploughing  soil, 
Men  with  joy  his  coming  greet. 
Like  to  Num,*  the  great  life-giver, 
Lo  he  shines,  and  they  who  toil, 
Very  glad  the  whole  land  over, 
Eat  and  drink  beside  the  river ; 
Every  creature  is  in  clover, 
Every  mouth  is  filled  with  meat. 

*  Num,  the  Nile-god,  regarded  as  giver  of  life. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  231 

IV. 

Bringing  food,  of  plenty  Lord  ! 
All  good  things  he  doth  create ; 
Lord  most  terrible  and  great, 
Yet  of  joys  divine 
Fount  adored, 

He  doth  in  himself  combine 
All,  and  all  in  love  doth  join. 
Grass  to  fill  the  oxen's  mouth 
He  provides,  to  each  god  brings 
Victims  meet  for  offerings, 
Choicest  incense  he  supplies. 
Lord  of  North-land,  Lord  of  South, 
He  doth  fill  the  granaries, 
Wealth  unto  the  rich  man's  door 
Adds,  and  when  the  poor  man  cries, 
Lo  !  he  careth  for  the  poor. 

v. 

Growth,  fulfilling  all  desires, 
Is  his  law,  he  never  tires ; 
As  a  buckler  is  his  might. 
Not  on  marble  is  he  scrolled, 
Like  a  king  with  double  crown  ; 
Him  our  eyes  cannot  behold, 
Priests  are  needed  not  by  him, 
Offerings  to  him  are  not  poured, 
Not  in  sanctuaries  dim 


232  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Is  he  god  adored. 
Yea,  his  dwelling  is  unknown, 
Never  yet  in  painted  shrine, 
Have  we  found  his  form  divine. 

VI. 

There  is  naught  we  build  or  make  * 

Can  our  god  contain.     Thy  heart 

Doth  with  no  man  counsel  take, 

Yet  in  thee  thy  youths  rejoice, 

And  thy  voice 

And  sovereign  will 

Order  all  their  goings  still. 

Lo  !  thy  law  is  firm  and  fair 

Over  all  the  land ; 

They  who  play  the  ruler's  part 

Are  thy  servants,  far  and  near, 

To  command ; 

North  and  South 

Obey  thy  mouth, 

And  thy  hand 

Wipes  from  all  men's  eyes  the  tear : 

Blessing  is  thy  constant  care. 

VII. 

Comes  the  glorious  inundation, 
Then  comes  joy,  and  then  come  smiles, 
Hearts  leap  up  with  exultation ; 
Even  the  jag-toothed  crocodiles, 

*  i  Kings  viii.  27. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  233 

Neith's  twin  suckling  sons,  are  glad, 
And  those  gods,  we  count  with  thee, 
To  earth's  glee 
Heavenly  joyance  add. 
Doth  not  Nile's  outbursting  flood 
Overcome  all  men  with  good  ? 
Doth  he  not  with  his  sweet  waters, 
Bring  desire  for  sons  and  daughters  ? 
No  man's  hand  doth  he  employ, 
Even  without  the  helpful  rain 
He  can  fill  our  fields  with  grain, 
And  bring  us  mortals  joy. 

VIII. 

In  his  coming  from  the  dark  land 
Lo  !  he  giveth  gleams  of  light ; 
In  the  pastures,  in  the  park-land 
All  he  maketh  with  his  might ; 
And  this  river's  living  store 
Bringeth  to  the  birth, 
Out  of  nothing,  what  on  earth 
Was  never  seen  before. 
Men  from  him  their  "  abbas  "  take, 
As  to  till  his  fields  they  fare, 
Garden-plot,  cucumber-square ; 
For  his  workmen  he  hath  care. 
Evening,  dewy-cold  and  dim, 
Blazing  noontide  doth  he  make ; 


234  NOTES  FOR    THE  NILE 

Ptah  and  Kabes,  loved  of  men, 

Blend  infinitude  in  him, 

All  within  their  ken 

He  createth — writings  rare, 

Sacred  words — all  things  that  are 

Serviceable  in  the  north 

For  the  ploughman 

And  the  bowman, 

By  his  will  he  bringeth  forth. 

IX. 

To  his  house  he  doth  return, 
Like  a  priest  for  oracles, 
Shrinking  to  his  urn ; 
Cometh  forth,  just  when  he  wills, 
From  his  mystic  fane  ; 
By  his  wrath  the  fish  are  slain,* 
Then  the  hungry  come  before  thee, 
For  the  waters  they  implore  thee, 
Praying  "  that  the  Theban  plain 
Be  like  Delta,  moist  and  green, 
That  each  man  may  swift  be  seen 
Catching  up  his  tools,  to  haste 
From  the  flood's  uprising,  none 
Leaving  fellow-men  behind, 
Hasting,  hurrying,  every  one ; 

*  Lit.  "  Thy  wrath  is  destruction  of  fishes  ;  "  meaning  that  the 
fish  die  in  the  pools,  when  the  water  fails. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  235 

That  the  nobles  leave  adorning, 
For  the  waters  rise, 
Yea,  and  break  up  ere  the  morning, 
Even  the  gods'  solemnities." 
So  they  pray ;  in  answer  comes 
The  refreshing  water-flood, 
Bringing  unto  all  men  food 
And  fatness  for  their  homes. 

x. 

Thou  who  dost  the  judgment-seat 

Firm  establish  ;  men  rejoice, 

Flattering  thee  with  grateful  voice  ; 

Worshippers  thy  coming  greet, 

Thee,  their  lord, 

With  thy  mighty  waters  poured. 

Unto  thee,  with  praise,  they  bring 

Gifts  of  corn  for  offering, 

When  the  gods  are  all  adored ; 

For  no  fowls  upon  the  land 

Fall  when  thou  art  by. 

Gold  they  give  thee  for  thy  hand, 

Gold,  in  ingots  moulded  pure, 

Gifts  of  lapis  lazuli, 

So,  secure 

The  corn  shall  lie— 

So,  no  hungry  bird  shall  eat 

The  germinating  wheat. 


236  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


Hymns  to  thee  the  harper  plays, 

Playing  with  a  skilful  hand ; 

All  thy  youths  for  thee  are  glad, 

Children  they,  thine  own. 

Thou  with  full  reward  dost  crown 

Their  laborious  days, 

Thou  the  mighty  one,  to  add 

Fit  adorning  to  the  land  ; 

And  they  feel  thy  great  enlightening, 

When  thou  sendest  from  above 

Flashings  of  thy  silver  shield ; 

Then  their  hearts,  with  joy,  are  brightening, 

For  they  know  that  thou  dost  love 

All  the  increase  of  the  field. 

XII. 

In  the  city  of  the  king* 
Thou  dost  shine ; 
Then  the  householder  may  dine, 
Faring  on  each  dainty  thing. 
He  who  gnawed  the  lotus-root  t 
When  the  food  was  scant, 
Laughs  at  such  a  pauper's  fare ; 

*  Probably  Thebes  is  the  city  alluded  to,  and  the  king  is 
Meneptah  II.,  son  of  Rameses  II. 

t  Lit.  "The  poor  man  laughs  at  the  lotus"  which  he  ate 
when,  in  time  of  scarcity,  he  could  get  nothing  better. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  237 

Perfectly  thou  dost  prepare 
All  things  that  thy  children  want, 
Orderest  every  herb  and  fruit ; 
But  if  food,  from  out  thy  hand, 
Fail,  then  joyance  too  must  fail; 
Hearts  are  weary,  cheeks  are  pale 
In  a  weary  land. 

xni. 

River !  when  thy  waters  rise, 
Offerings  unto  thee  we  make, 
Oxen  unto  thee  we  slay, 
For  thee  keep  our  holiday, 
Fowls  to  thee  we  sacrifice, 
Beasts  for  thee  the  hunters  take, 
And  unto  thy  holy  name 
Rise  the  gifts  of  purest  flame  ; 
Unto  all  the  gods  that  be, 
Do  we  bring 
An  offering, 

When  we  sacrifice  to  thee. 
Incense-clouds  ascend  to  heaven, 
Oxen,  bulls,  and  fowls  are  given 
To  thine  altar's  fiery  mouth, 
When  from  out  the  double  cave* — 

*  An  allusion  to  the  Egyptian  tradition  that  the  Nile  issues 
from  two  chasms  or  openings,  in  the  south.  Perhaps  at  that  time 
the  sources  of  the  Blue  and  White  Nile  were  known. 

\ 


238  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Those  two  openings  in  the  south — 
Comes  the  mighty  river, 
Nile,  of  name,  in  heaven  unknown, 
Nile,  whose  forms  are  never  shown 
Forms  no  man  hath  sculptured  ever, 
None  can  paint  or  grave. 

XIV. 

Men  extol  him,  and  the  gods 
Praise  him  in  their  high  abodes  ; 
Yea,  each  great  and  terrible  one 
Stands  in  awe  of  him ; 
And  his  son  the  king,  is  given, 
Lord  of  all,*  to  send  from  heaven 
Light  to  Egypt  dim, 
Light  to  Egypt,  south  and  north. 
Wherefore,  river,  shine  thou  forth  ! 
Rise  and  shine  !  upon  us  smile  ! 
Thou  who  givest  life,  by  giving 
Oxen,  for  the  ploughman's  team, 
Thou  who  for  the  oxen's  living, 
Makest  pasture  by  the  stream, 
Shine  upon  us,  glorious  Nile  ! 

*  The  Pharaoh  is  spoken  of  here  as  the  son  of  the  Nile,  and 
a.delicate  hint  of  his  divine  sonship  to  the  god  Ra,  in  his  office 
of  enlightener,  is  made  at  one  and  the  same  time. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  239 


LAMENTATIONS   OF  ISIS  AND  NEPHTHYS. 

PTOLEMAIC   DYNASTY,    305-27    B.C. 

No  one  interested  in  the  art  of  working  in  hard  stone, 
but  will  look  with  interest  on  the  beautiful  group  of 
black  serpentine  figures,  now  in  the  Bulak  Museum, 
which  Mariette  Bey  brought  from  the  tomb  at  Sak- 
karah,  of  a  certain  high  functionary  of  the  Saitic  Court, 
Psamtik  by  name,  who,  we  may  suppose,  lived  about 
600  years  B.C.  The  group  consists  of  a  magnificently 
modelled  Hathor,  in  form  of  a  cow,  protecting  the 
defunct,  in  Amend.  Right  and  left  sit,  on  separate 
thrones,  Osiris  and  Isis — the  former  with  the  crook  and 
scourge  of  office,  the  latter  with  the  key  of  life  upon  her 
lap — and  if  we  are  impressed  by  the  tender  kindness 
of  the  face  of  Hathor,  beaming  above  the  deceased 
who  puts  his  trust  in  her,  we  are  certainly  as  much 
struck  by  the  beneficence  upon  the  faces  both  of  Isis  and 
Osiris.  However  much  Pantheism  led  to  animal  wor- 
ship and  materialism  in  later  times,  it  is,  I  think,  plain 
that  Psamtik,  who  lived,  it  must  be  remembered,  in 
the  twenty-sixth  dynasty,  that  gave  such  honour  to  the 
cult  of  Apis,  did,  nevertheless,  believe  in  the  spiritual 
powers  of  love  and  life  and  light  that  could  not  die, 


240  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

and  in  a  judge  of  merciful  loving-kindness  in  the  world 
beyond.  Turning  from  these  monuments  to  a  little 
stele  of  limestone,  which  I  dareto  call  the  stele  of  the 
shrine  of  the  Resurrection,  one  sees  Osiris,  standing 
erect,  and  looking  certainly  less  benign,  and  above  his 
head  may  be  noticed  a  full  sun's  disk  with  a  scarabseus 
right  upon  it,  and  on  either  side,  upon  bended  knee, 
a  dog-faced  ape,  sacred  to  Thoth,  and  ever  present 
above  the  scales  of  right  and  wrong  in  the  Hall  of 
Judgment,  bending  in  adoration.  What  can  all  this 
mean,  but  that  Osiris  is  not  only  Judge,  but  also  Lord 
of  the  Resurrection  of  the  Just  ? 

Travellers  in  Egypt  who  remember  what  the  hope 
of  the  resurrection  and  the  belief  in  a  Saviour  of  the 
living,  who  is  also  a  Judge  of  the  dead,  has  been  to  the 
last  nineteen  centuries  of  Christendom,  will  stand  in 
reverence  before  the  thought  of  what  a  kindred  hope 
— like,  but  how  unlike — effected  for  thrice  that  number 
of  centuries,  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 

A  belief  in  an  Osiris  who,  as  Plutarch  says,  "  takes 
pleasure  in  doing  good,"  and  whose  name,  amongst 
many  other  meanings,  was  said  to  denote  activity  and 
beneficence — a  belief  in  an  Osiris  who  came  on  earth 
as  the  benefactor  of  mankind,  who  was  put  to  death, 
and  who  rose  again,  and  who  sits  in  the  hall  of  judg- 
ment to  judge  the  spirits  of  all  the  departed,  was  the 
sheet-anchor  of  the  faith  of  old  Egypt.  To  this  belief 
in  a  resurrection,  the  monuments,  from  the  oldest 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  241 

pyramid  to  the  latest  Ptolemaic  and  Roman  temple, 
bear  witness ;  and  as  we  Christians  have  our  Holy 
Sepulchre,  so  the  Egyptians  had  theirs.  The  head  of 
Osiris,  when  it  was  found  at  last,  was  reverentially 
buried  at  Abydos ;  and,  whether  we  are  right  in  iden- 
tifying ancient  This  with  Abydos,  or  with  Girgeh,  a 
few  miles  to  the  north,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  round 
that  sacred  tomb  of  Osiris,  there  had  grown  such  a 
cult,  that  all  the  glory  of  Chufu  (of  the  fourth  dynasty) 
was  unable,  with  his  temple  at  Denderah,  to  attract 
either  commerce  or  people  away  from  that  sacred  spot 
where  the  head  of  Osiris  was  buried. 

Over  the  holy  sepulchre  grew,  for  hundreds  of  years, 
an  ever-increasing  mound  of  tombs.  That  mound, 
known  to  us  to-day  as  Kom  es  Sultan,  at  Abydos,  has 
been  carefully  excavated.  Sixth,  twelfth,  and  thir- 
teenth dynasty  tombs,  roughly  speaking  from  3700 
B.C.  to  2800  B.C.,  abound.  It  is  believed  there  are 
earlier  tombs,  and  there  certainly  were  later  ones. 
Plutarch  tells  us  that  wealthy  inhabitants  were  brought 
from  all  parts  of  Egypt  to  be  interred  at  Abydos,  in 
order  that  they  might  repose  close  to  Osiris.  At  what 
date  the  cult  of  Osiris  rose,  or  became  separate  from 
the  cult  of  Ra,  we  cannot  know,  but  it  is  in  the  nature 
of  things  that  the  humanity  and  personality  demanded 
of  their  presiding  deities  by  the  worshippers,  turned 
after  a  time  from  the  far-off  Ra  in  his  golden  boat, 
passing  each  day  to  battle  with  Apepi,  the  dragon  cf 

Q 


242  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

cloud  and  darkness  and  all  evil,  to  the  more  tangible 
form  of  the  same  teaching  in  the  person  of  Osiris. 
That  the  cult  of  Osiris  is  of  later  date  than  the  cult  of 
Ra,  may  be  inferred  from  a  passage  in  the  "  Book  of 
the  Dead,"  as  quoted  by  Page  Renouf,  which  says 
that  "  Osiris  came  to  Tattu  (Mendes)  and  found  the 
soul  of  Ra  there."  It  would  appear  that  the  later  cult 
became  from  that  time  entirely  one  with  the  earlier, 
for  the  passage  concludes  thus — "  each  embraced  the 
other,  and  became  as  one  soul  in  two  souls."  How 
late  the  cult  of  Osiris  lingered  on  in  Egypt  one  learns 
best  at  Philse.  Philae  owes  all  its  beauty  of  temple- 
building  to  the  fact  that  it  was  looked  upon  as  another 
of  the  holy  sepulchres  of  Osiris — an  oath  sworn  by 
Osiris  of  Philae  could  not  be  broken — and  from  one 
of  the  Greek  laudatory  inscriptions  on  the  first  pylon 
of  the  Temple  of  Isis  there,  written  by  pilgrims  to  the 
shrine,  we  learn  that  there,  so  late  as  A.D.  453,  under 
the  Emperor  Martian,  and  seventy  years  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  famous  Edict  of  Theodosius 
against  the  religion  of  old  Egypt,  there  still  lived  in 
that  holy  island,  priests  who  celebrated  the  rites  of 
Isis  and  Osiris. 

The  visitor  to  the  Romanic-Egyptian  Temple  of 
Denderah,  if  he  passes  by  the  little  Iseium  at  the 
N.W.  end  of  the  temple,  will  see  a  pylon  hard  by, 
which  was  dedicated  to  Isis  in  the  thirty-first  year  of 
Caesar  Augustus. 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  243 

Jesus  Christ  was  then  four  years  old,  and  those  of 
us  who  enter  that  temple  and  visit  the  chambers  of  the 
invocation  of  Isis,  and  of  Osiris,  restored  to  strength, 
and  power  over  death — of  Osiris  risen  again — chambers 
which  lie  immediately  to  the  south  of  the  central 
shrine  of  the  golden  barks,  will  remember  that  it  is 
probable  that  the  sculpturing  of  this  resurrection 
story  did  not  take  place  till  the  teaching  of  Christ  on 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  had  already  begun  to 
sound  in  Egypt. 

The  cult  of  Osiris  was  universal.  Ammon  might 
be  worshipped  at  Thebes,  Ptah  at  Memphis,  Sutek  at 
San,  Horus  at  Heliopolis,  Khnoum  at  Elephantine ; 
but  Osiris  was  worshipped  universally. 

Egypt  was  divided  into  forty-two  provinces,  and  in 
addition  to  the  universal  or  principal  Osiris,  each 
of  these  provinces  worshipped  a  local  Osiris  also. 
One  did  not  realise  this  till  one  passed  on  to  the  roof 
of  the  temple  at  Denderah,  and  there  entered  the 
little  temple,  with  its  two  groups  of  chambers,  dedi- 
cated to  the  Osiris  of  Denderah,  under  the  title  of 
Osiris- An.  At  a  glance  one  saw  that  the  six  chambers 
of  the  temple  were  divided  into  two  sets.  To  the 
three  on  the  north,  the  worshipper  of  the  Osiris  of 
the  northern  provinces  had  access ;  and  the  three 
chambers  of  the  south  were  dedicated  to  the  Osiris 
gods  of  the  southern  provinces. 

There  on  the  walls  were  seen,  not  local,  but  national 


244  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

traditions  of  the  Osiris,  under  his  forty-two  names  for 
the  forty-two  nomes,  or  provinces.  Long  processions 
of  gods  were  there  seen,  carrying  in  their  vases  the 
limbs  of  Osiris,  which  each  town  possessed,  and  there, 
too,  were  portrayed  the  forty-two  funeral  biers  of  the 
good  god. 

The  traveller  who  visits  Denderah,  comes  away 
with  the  impression  that  the  Romans  and  Egyptians, 
who,  upon  Ptolemaic  foundations,  were  intending  to 
build  a  temple  to  Venus,  finished  by  building  a  temple 
to  the  True  and  Beautiful  and  Good,  and  to  their 
sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  joyful  resurrection  of  these 
three  powers  that  are  immortal. 

But  he  will  be  much  impressed  by  the  permanence 
and  vitality  of  the  cult  of  Osiris,  which,  in  the  deca- 
dence of  fortune  and  religion,  could  so  appeal  to  the 
heart  of  Alexandrian,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Egyptian, 
as  to  bring  it  about  that  the  latest  monuments  of  the 
land  should  be  teachers  of  the  truths  of  Osiris,  and 
witnesses  for  a  faith  in  a  resurrection. 

As  I  stood  one  day  in  that  most  interesting  of 
Hypethral  chapels — the  chapel  of  the  bringing  to- 
gether of  the  limbs  of  Osiris — on  the  roof  of  the 
Temple  of  Philse — I  heard  a  young  English  girl  say  to 
her  father  :  "  I  can't  make  it  out,  the  guide-book  says 
that  Isis  was  the  sister,  as  well  as  the  wife  of  Osiris." 

"Nonsense,  my  dear,  the  thing's  impossible.  I 
never  heard  such  a  thing  in  my  life." 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  245 

An  American  stepped  forward,  and  said  to  me: 
"Wall  sir,  ken  you  tell  me  whether  it  was  Isis  or 
Osiris  that  was  Mr.  ?  I've  got  rather  mixed." 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  of  service,  then,  to  travellers  up 
Nile,  to  have  in  brief  the  legend  of  a  cult  so  universal 
and  so  indelibly  impressed  upon  old  Egypt,  that  the 
very  arms  of  the  river  Nile  in  the  Delta,  or,  as  they 
called  it,  "  legs  of  the  river,"  were  thought  of  only  as 
another  form  of  the  good  god  Osiris. 

We  will  premise  that  Osiris  is  the  personification  of 
the  eternal  antagonism  of  good  and  evil,  light  and 
darkness,  life  and  death. 

Osiris,  smitten  by  the  genius  of  evil,  Typhon,  dies, 
but  rises  again,  again  to  fall,  again  to  rise  undyingly. 
Osiris  is  the  eldest  of  the  five  children  of  Seb  and 
Nut.  He  is  greater  than  his  father,  more  powerful 
than  his  mother  ;  while  yet  in  his  mother's  womb  he 
weds  his  sister  Isis,  and  their  offspring  was  the  elder 
Horus.  Set  and  Nephthys  are  their  brother  and  sister, 
who  also  marry  one  .another.  Osiris  is  attacked  by 
Set,  and  slain,  but  is  avenged  by  Horus,  his  son,  and 
reigns  as  judge  of  the  dead  in  the  Hall  of  the  two- 
fold Right. 

But  if  one  should  wish  for  a  fuller  account  of 
the  legend,  one  had  better  go  to  the  pseudo-Plu- 
tarch, "  De  Iside  et  Osiride  "  xii-xx.  There  one  may 
find,  interwoven  with  mysticism,  a  carefully  written 
account  of  the  story  of  Isis  and  Osiris,  as  it  was 


246  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

current  at  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  the  Christian 
era. 

The  gods,  tired  of  reigning  in  heaven,  began  to 
reign  upon  earth  by  turns,  in  the  likeness  of  men. 
Osiris  was  fifth  king  and  lord  of  Egypt,  north  and 
south.  His  reign  was  beneficent.  He  brought  the 
country  from  barbarism  and  poverty  to  law  and  order, 
to  wealth,  to  reverence  and  worship.  He  taught  the 
people  agriculture  and  the  art  of  music.  In  a  tem- 
porary absence  from  his  kingdom,  Isis,  his  queen, 
took  the  government.  Typhon  Suteckh,  or  Set,  deter- 
mined to  overthrow  Osiris,  but  Isis  was  too  vigilant 
for  him.  On  the  return  of  Osiris,  Typhon,  who  had 
taken  the  measure  of  Osiris'  body,  caused  a  beautiful 
chest  to  be  made,  and  at  a  banquet,  given  in  Osiris' 
honour,  promised  the  chest  to  any  one  who,  lying 
down  in  it,  should  find  it  fit  him. 

Of  course  the  company  all  try,  but  it  fits  none  but 
Osiris.  He  lies  down  in  it,  in  a  trice  the  conspirators, 
who  are  in  the  secret,  clap  the  lid  down,  fasten  it,  and 
carry  it  away  to  the  sea  by  the  Tanaitic  mouth  of  the 
Nile,  which  was  ever  afterwards  held  to  be  accursed. 

When  Isis  hears  of  it,  she  is  disconsolate,  and  goes 
forth  mourning,  in  search  of  the  chest.  Nephthys, 
her  sister,  accompanies  her.  She  hears  of  it  as  being 
washed  ashore  in  the  papyrus  swamp  of  the  Syrian 
Byblos. 

She  goes  thither,  finds  that  the  chest  had  lodged  in  a 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  247 

tamarisk  tree — the  tamarisk  had  grown,  and  com- 
pletely enveloped  it,  had  been  cut  down  and  become 
a  pillar  of  the  king's  house. 

For  her  service  to  the  Queen  and  Court  ladies,  with 
whom  she  ingratiated  herself  as  a  kind  of  lady's  maid, 
she  obtained  permission  to  cut  the  chest  from  out  of 
the  tamarisk  pillar,  and  having  secured  it,  sailed  away 
for  Egypt,  opened  the  chest  upon  a  desert  shore, 
laid  her  face  upon  her  husband's,  put  her  arms  about 
his  dead  body,  and  made  lamentation.  She  had 
determined  to  bury  Osiris,  after  embalmment,  at 
Memphis,  but  on  a  moonlight  night,  Typhon,  out 
hunting,  came  upon  it,  and  recognising  the  body,  tore 
it  into  fourteen  pieces,  and  some  say,  scattered  them 
up  and  down  the  country.  Isis  again  sets  out  to  seek 
the  fragments  in  a  papyrus  boat,  for  which  reason  the 
crocodiles  refuse  to  touch  people  who  sail  in  such 
vessels. 

After  these  things,  Osiris,  returning  from  the  other 
world,  appeared  to  his  son  Horus,  urged  him  to  battle 
against  Typhon,  and  instructed  him  in  the  use  of 
arms. 

In  a  pitched  battle  which  lasted  many  days,  Horus 
was  victor,  and  Typhon,  or  Set,  was  taken  prisoner. 
He  was  sent  in  chains  to  Isis,  but  she,  instead  of  slay, 
ing  him,  loosed  his  chains  and  set  him,  her  own  brother, 
free.  Horus,  mad  with  indignation,  laid  hands  on  his 
mother  Isis,  tore  off  her  crown,  or,  as  some  say,  struck 


248  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

off  her  head,  and  in  place  of  it,  to  repair  the  injury, 
Thoth  gave  her  a  cow's  head  and  horns.  After  this 
Horus  renewed  the  battle  with  his  uncle  Set,  or 
Typhon,  and  slew  him  with  a  long  spear,  which  he 
drove  into  his  head. 

Now  for  the  explanation  of  the  myth.  The  parents 
of  Osiris,  we  remember,  were  Earth  and  Heaven,  Seb 
and  Nut.  The  Earth  being  looked  upon  as  Father  of 
all,  and  Heaven  as  Mother.  Travellers  may  see  Nut 
constantly  represented  as  bending  her  star-spangled 
body  over  the  whole  earth,  nowhere  better  than  on 
the  lids  of  the  sarcophagi  in  the  Gizeh  Museum  and  in 
the  ceiling  of  the  Court  of  Heaven,  of  the  Temple  of 
Denderah.  And  wherever  they  see  a  man,  with  a 
goose  standing  upon  his  head,  they  may  know  that 
they  are  looking  upon  a  representative  of  the  earth,  to 
whom  the  goose  was  dedicated ;  Seb  being  looked 
upon  as  the  great  cackler  who  laid  the  egg  of  the  earth 
and  hatched  it.  From  the  marriage  of  Earth  and 
Heaven,  Seb  and  Nut,  sprang  Osiris  the  Sun,  and  Isis 
the  Dawn.  Joined  in  wedlock  before  they  issued 
from  their  mother's  womb,  they  two  had  a  son — 
Horus,  this  was  the  Sun  in  his  full  strength.  The 
kingdom  of  Osiris  was  the  sunrise.  The  destroyer  of 
the  sunrise  is  Darkness  (Set)  who,  with  his  spouse, 
the  Sunset  (Nephthys),  reigns  in  the  West.  Nephthys 
also  has  a  child,  some  say  by  Osiris ;  that  child  is 
Anubis  the  Dusk.  The  victory  of  Set,  or  Typhon, 


249 

over  Isiris  is  a  victory  of  Darkness  over  Light,  Night 
over  Day,  and  the  resurrection  of  Osiris  is  the  rising 
of  the  Sun. 

For  how  many  ages  the  sun  had  risen  and  set 
before  men  saw  in  his  beneficent  coming,  a  kindly 
father  of  their  spirits,  and  in  his  going,  need  for 
lamentation  and  tears;  for  how  many  years  the  light 
of  day  had  been  swallowed  up  in  darkness  before 
men  felt,  within  their  hearts,  that  it  spoke  to  them  of  a 
daily  struggle  of  evil  against  good ;  for  how  many 
years  they  saw  the  triumphant  sunrise,  before  day  by 
day  it  spoke  to  them  of  the  certain  triumph  of  good 
over  evil,  aad  the  faith  of  a  resurrection  to  eternal  life 
beyond  the  grave,  found  echo  within  their  souls,  we 
know  not.  This  we  know,  that  one,  at  any  rate,  of  the 
two  races  that  lie  buried  side  by  side  in  the  third 
dynasty  mounds,  by  the  "  pyramid  of  the  rising,"  at 
Medum,  must  have  felt  that  there  was  a  mysterious 
union  between  their  chance  of  another  life,  and  the 
certain  rising  of  the  god  of  morn. 

Those  of  us  who  pass  up  the  Osirian  river  towards 
the  temple,  where  the  latest  rites  of  the  god  were  held 
inviolate,  and  who  witness,  as  old  Egypt  witnessed, 
the  rising  of  the  day-star  in  scarlet  and  fine  linen  over 
the  eastern  cliffs ;  his  golden-crowned  glory  at  noon, 
and  his  death  in  the  sea  of  blood  above  the  purple 
desert  to  the  west,  may  well  be  awed  by  the  thought 
of  to  how  many  millions  of  minds,  for  how  many 


250  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

thousands  of  years,  in  this  valley  of  the  Nile,  the 
daily  triumph  of  the  Osirian  god,  and  mighty  tragedy 
of  his  death,  brought  comfort  and  sorrow. 

It  was  my  fortune,  as  I  descended  from  the  shat- 
tered, but  gigantic  funeral  mound  of  Kom  es  Sultan, 
to  see  a  dead  man  carried  to  burial  with  Mahommedan 
rites. 

The  lamentation  of  Isis  was  in  my  ears,  and  I  felt  that 
the  legend  of  Osiris  had  probably  brought,  to  every  grave 
in  ancient  Egypt,  more  of  consolation  than  is  often  felt 
at  a  moslem  grave  in  modern  Egypt.  For,  once  a  year 
at  least  (at  the  Feast  of  Osiris  for  the  dead),  in  those 
old  times  the  dead  man's  friends  seem  to  have  come 
to  the  temple,  and  there,  through  the  lips  of  priests 
and  priestesses,  coupled  the  names  of  their  dead  with 
Osiris,  and  invoked  them,  as  already  endowed,  with 
the  great  god's  life,  and  already  enjoying  the  blessing 
of  his  fellowship ;  and  back  would  return  from  the 
temple  gates,  with  as  sure  and  certain  a  hope  of  the 
joyful  resurrection  of  the  departed,  as  of  the  sun's 
rising  in  the  morning.  It  is  not  too  much  to  ask  the 
traveller  in  Egypt,  if  he  should  be  at  Denderah  on 
some  1 3th  day  of  November,  to  imagine  that,  though 
he  hears  not  the  sound  of  any  zither  or  pipes — for 
these  were  forbidden  in  the  commencement  of  Osirian 
festivals — he  may  still  see  two  beautiful  priestesses 
"beautiful  in  all  their  members"  seated  at  the  prin- 
cipal door  of  the  hall  where  the  judgment  scene  is 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  251 

painted  ;  and  whilst  he  notes  the  Memphian  bread  in 
one  hand,  and  the  crystal  vase  of  water  in  the  other, 
he  may  hear  from  their  lips  arise  the  passionate 
prayer  to  Osiris- An  : — "  Come  to  thine  abode,  oh  come 
to  thine  abode,  excellent  sovereign,  come  to  thine 
abode." 

The  papyrus,  probably  of  about  the  time  of  the 
Ptolemies,  from  which  the  accompanying  lamentation 
of  Isis  and  Nephthys  is  taken,  was  found  at  Thebes, 
inside  a  statue,  representing  Osiris,  by  M.  Passalaqua. 
It  is  now  in  the  Royal  Museum,  Berlin;  partially 
translated  by  H.  Brugsch  in  1852,  it  has  since  been 
entirely  translated  by  M.  P.  I.  de  Horrack.  It  has 
analogy  with  the  Book  of  Respirations,  and  the  Book 
of  Glorifying  Isis,  which,  in  later  Egyptian  times,  seem 
to  have  superseded  the  Book  of  the  Dead.  It  repre- 
sents Isis  and  Nephthys  making  lamentation  and 
prayers,  to  effect  the  resurrection  of  their  brother 
Osiris,  and,  from  the  fact  that  the  name  of  a  certain 
Tentrut  is  joined  with  Osiris  in  the  opening  recital,  it 
is  certain  that  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  man  is  also 
kept  in  mind  by  the  reciting  women  who  personified 
the  sisters  of  Osiris,  at  the  time  of  the  solemnities  on 
the  25th  day  of  Choiak,*  at  the  third  and  eighth  hours 
of  the  day.f 

*  Choiak  commenced  Oct.  18. 

t  This  metrical  rendering  is  based  on  M.  de  Horrack's  trans- 
lation, "  Records  of  the  Past,"  vol.  ii.  p.  119. 


252  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


THE  LAMENTATION  OF  ISIS  AND 
NEPHTHYS. 

305-27  B.C. 

RECITAL  of  the  potent  formulae 

Made  by  the  two,  the  sisters,  the  divine, 

Isis  and  Nephthys,  in  the  house  of  god 

Osiris,  he  who  liveth  in  the  west, 

Lord  of  Abjdos ;  the  recitals  made 

In  the  month  Choiak,  day  the  twenty-fifth. 

Where'er  Osiris  doth  abide,  the  same 

Recited  are,  in  all  his  festivals, 

And  they  are  beneficial  to  his  soul, 

Make  firm  his  body,  and  diffuse  a  joy 

Through  all  his  being ;  to  his  nostrils  give 

Breath,  and  sweet  coolness  to  his  parched  throat ; 

Isis  and  Nephthys'  heart  they  satisfy, 

Place  Horus  on  the  throne-seat  of  his  father, 

Give  life,  stability,  tranquillity 

To  Osiris-Tentrut,  born  of  Takha-aa, 

Surnamed  Persais,  he  the  justified, 

And  to  recite  them  it  is  profitable, 

Conformably  with  words  that  are  divine. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  253 


E  VOCA  TION  B  Y  ISIS. 

To  thine  abode,  to  thine  abode,  oh  come, 
To  thine  abode,  god  An,  I  thee  implore, 
Thine  enemies  exist  not  any  more ; 
Return,  oh  glorious  sovereign,  to  thine  home. 

I  am  thy  sister,  whom  thou  hast  embraced, 
Look  on  me,  I,  thy  sister,  loving  thee ; 
Oh,  beauteous  youth,  stay  not  thou  far  from  me, 
But  come  to  thine  abode  with  haste,  with  haste. 

I  see  thee  not,  and  to  my  heart  doth  throng 
Anguish  for  thee,  and  bitterness  untold  ; 
Mine  eyes  seek  to  thee,  wishing  to  behold — 
Ere  I  behold  will  it  be  long,  be  long  ? 

How  long,  oh  glorious  sovereign,  must  I  yearn, 
Before  the  sight  of  thee  mine  eyes  shall  bless  ? 
God  An,  beholding  thee  is  happiness, 
To  her  who  loveth  thee,  return,  return. 

Oh,  Un-nefer,*  the  justified  in  state, 
Come  to  thy  sister,  come  unto  thy  wife, 
Oh,  Urt-het,*  lo,  one  mother  gave  us  life, 
Thyself  from  me  no  longer  separate. 

*  Un-nefer  and  Urt-het  are  surnames  of  Osiris. 


254  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

The  gods  and  men  towards  thee  turn  their  faces, 
Weeping  for  thee  when  they  behold  my  tears. 
I  make  lament,  but  there  is  none  that  hears, 
Yea,  though  with  plaint,  unto  the  heavenly  places, 
I,  who  so  loved  thee  here  on  earth,  do  cry, 
Thy  sister,  none  hath  loved  thee  more  than  I. 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  255 


EVOCATION  OF  NEPHTHYS. 

OH  sovereign  most  excelling, 

Come  now  unto  thy  dwelling, 

Rejoice,  for  all  thine  enemies  are  dead  ; 

Thy  sisters  twain  around  thy  funeral-bed, 

Their  guardian  watch  are  keeping, 

And  call  on  thee  with  weeping, 

Whose  limbs  upon  the  lion-couch  are  spread. 

Our  tender,  sweet  solicitude  thou  seest,  speak  a  word ; 

Speak,  supreme  one,  mighty  Ruler,  Lord  and  King. 

Chase  away  the  pain  that  now  our  hearts  doth  wring  : 

Gods  and  men,  thy  company, 

When  they  see  thee,  lo,  they  cry 

Look  upon  us,  oh  supreme  one,  ruler,  Lord — 

It  is  life  for  us  thy  face  to  contemplate, 

Let  thy  face  be  turned  away 

From  us  never  more,  we  pray, 

For  the  joy  of  our  heart's  being 

Is  to  see  thee,  and  in  seeing, 

Oh,  sovereign,  our  heart's  happiness  is  great. 

I  am  Nephthys,  I  thy  sister,  I  who  love  thee, 
Thy  foe  is  vanquished, 


256  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

He  lives  not,  he  is  dead. 

I  am  near  thee,  and  for  ever 

Those  limbs  they  did  dissever, 

Protecting  them  from  harm,  I  bend  above  thee. 


Here  follow  two  invocations  to  Osiris,  under  the 
forms  of  the  moon  and  the  sun,  expressing  the  joy  of 
his  two  sisters,  Isis  and  Nephthys,  at  having  thus  per- 
ceived him.  The  lamentation  concludes  with  an  invo- 
cation by  Isis,  of  which  a  translation  is  given. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT.  257 


INVOCATION  B  Y  ISIS. 

OH  come  to  thine  abode,  into  thy  dwelling, 
To  thine  abode  return,  oh  !  King  excelling. 

Come  and  behold,  to  thy  son  Horus  given, 
The  sovereign-rule  supreme  of  earth  and  heaven. 

Cities  he  hath  and  districts  at  desire, 

By  that  respect  his  greatness  doth  inspire. 

Of  him  the  heaven  and  earth  are  both  in  awe, 
The  far  barbarians  tremble  at  his  law. 

Lo,  thy  companions  who  are  men  and  gods 
Have  become  his,  in  the  divine  abodes. 

In  either  hemisphere  they  do  his  will, 
And  all  thy  rites  they  faithfully  fulfil. 

These  two  are  near  thee  now,  the  sisters  thine, 
Pouring  libations  to  thy  form  divine. 

Horus,  thy  son,  for  funeral  offering 

Doth  bread  and  beverage,  geese  and  oxen  bring. 

Thoth  chanteth  to  thee  songs  of  festival,  . 
By  his  good  formulae  on  thee  doth  call. 


258  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

The  sons  of  Horus  keep  thy  members  whole, 
And  every  day  they  benefit  thy  soul. 

Horus,  thy  son,  salutes  thee  in  thy  shrine, 
And  gives  thee  things,  by  consecration  thine. 

In  hand  behold  the  gods  their  vases  take, 
And  to  thy  being,  their  libations  make. 

Ruler  supreme,  our  Lord,  we  thee  implore, 
From  thy  companions  be  not  absent  more. 


The  place  where  this  recital  goeth  forward 
Is  very  holy,  let  none  see  or  hear, 
Save  the  head  priest  who  reads  the  panegyrics, 
And  he  who  doth  preside  o'er  rituals. 
First,  are  two  women,  beautiful  of  form, 
Brought  in  and  made  to  sit  upon  the  ground, 
There,  at  the  great  door  of  the  Hall  of  Judgment. 
And  then  the  names  of  Isis  and  of  Nephthys 
Are  written  on  their  shoulders.     Crystal  jars 
Of  water,  next  are  placed  in  their  right  hands, 
And  in  their  left  hands,  loaves  of  Memphian  bread. 
Let  them  see  all  the  ritual  rightly  done, 
Both  at  the  third  and  eighth  hour  of  the  day, 
And  at  the  hour  of  the  ceremony, 
Cease  not  the  recitation  of  this  book. 

(It  is  finished.) 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  259 


LAMENT  OF  THE  DEAD  WIFE  OF 
PASHERENPTAH. 

PTOLEMAIC   DYNASTY,    305-27    B.C. 

NOTWITHSTANDING  the  fact  that,  during  the  Ptolemaic 
Renaissance,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  greater  pro- 
minence given  to  the  worship  of  Osiris,  and  a  more 
passionate  appeal  than  ever  to  the  hearts  of  men,  to 
see  in  the  sunrise  a  new  birth  for  the  hope  of  the 
Resurrection  of  the  Dead,  there  were  minds  to 
which  this  teaching  brought  no  comfort;  it  would 
almost  appear  that  something  of  the  early  Egyptian 
belief  in  the  condition  of  happiness  beyond  the  tomb, 
had  lost  its  hold  on  the  hearts  of  men. 

Upon  this  phase  of  declining  belief,  the  following 
sorrowful  lament  from  the  grave,  from  one  of  the 
latest  Ptolemaic  tablets,  and  reproduced  in  Sharpe's 
"  Egyptian  Inscriptions,"  i.  pi.  4,  is  a  sad  commen- 
tary. Readers  who  compare  this  cry  from  Hades,  of 
the  dead  wife  to  her  beloved  husband,  with  the 
"  Funeral  Dirge  of  King  Antef,"  or  the  "  Song  of  the 
Harper,"  will  see  that,  at  any  rate  in  those  earlier 
times,  though  the  dead  men  bade  their  living  brothers 


260  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

enjoy  life  while  they  might,  they  always  suggested  that 
it  would  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  death  came,  and 
after  death  came  judgment,  and  that  for  the  deeds 
done  well  in  the  body  here,  there  would  be  a  happier 
life  in  the  world  of  spirit. 

But  this  cry  of  the  dead  wife  is  more  bitter  than  the 
wail  of  the  Greek  hero :  "  Better  it  is  to  be  a  slave  on 
earth,  than  a  king  in  Hades." 

There  is  a  note  of  hopeless  sadness  about  it,  of  un- 
ending gloom  and  sorrowful  separation  from  all  one's 
kin,  and  all  love,  and  all  that  made  life  worth  living, 
which  is  tragic  in  its  pathos.  "  Death  Absolute  "  has 
seldom  had  the  thickness  of  his  black  darkness  put 
forth  more  plaintively. 

Pasherenptah  loved  his  wife,  and  she  had  borne 
him,  we  read,  "  handsome  girls,"  but  he  was  now 
forty-three  years  old,  and  as  yet,  he  had  no  son.  He 
had  prayed  to  the  God  I-em-hotep  for  a  son  "  to  re- 
main in  his  place  for  ever,  and  ever  to  keep  alive  the 
name  of  his  house."  The  prayer  had  been  granted, 
and  it  is  allowable  for  us  to  read  between  the  lines  of 
his  wife's  lamentation  in  Hades,  and  to  believe  that 
she  was  passionately  attached  to  a  very  tender  hus- 
band and  a  beloved  child.  That  she  had  spoiled  her 
husband,  and  let  him  have  his  own  way  in  everything, 
is,  I  think,  also  apparent  from  the  context ;  but  the 
devotion  to  him,  her  wish  in  her  abode  of  darkness 
arid  sorrow  that  he  and  his  house  should  be  full  of 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  261 

sunshine  and  joy,  is  most  touching.  The  picture  of 
the  utter  helplessness  of  the  dead,  is  terribly  graphic. 
The  prose  translation  of  which  this  metrical  render- 
ing is  given,  will  be  found  in  Page  Renouf  s  "  Hibbert 
Lectures,"  p.  242.  References  to  the  tablet  of  Pash- 
erenptah  will  be  found  pp.  141,  156. 


262  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


LAMENT   OF   THE   DEAD    WIFE    Of 
PASHERENPTAH. 

305-27    B.C. 

BROTHER  and  spouse  of  mine, 
Cease  not  to  drink  the  wine 

And  cup  of  gladness. 
Love  women  while  you  may, 
Make  life  one  holiday, 
Keep  all  thy  care  away, 

Banish  earth's  sadness. 

For,  in  Amenti,  all 
Feel  darkness  like  a  pall, 

Heavy  as  sorrow. 
Here  in  the  land  of  sleep, 
Each  his  own  place  must  keep, 
Wrapped  in  a  slumber  deep 

That  knows  no  morrow. 

Ah  !  and  the  bitter  pain, 
Never  to  see  again 
Sister  or  brother ; 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  263. 

Never  to  feel  the  heart, 
For  wife  and  child  to  start, 
Never  to  recognise 
Father  and  mother. 


You,  underneath  the  sun, 
Where  living  waters  run, 

Drink,  but  I  drink  not ; 
For  you  sweet  waters  flow 
I  cannot  taste,  nor  know 
Since  I  came,  where  I  am, 

See  not,  and  think  not. 

I  for  the  streams  that  pass 
By  me,  must  cry,  "Alas," 

My  lips  not  steeping ; 
Yea,  for  the  pleasant  breeze 
There,  in  the  river-trees, 
That  so  my  sorrow  cease, 

Still  am  I  weeping. 

"Absolute  Death  "  is  god 
Here,  in  this  dread  abode, 

Death  !  none  adore  him. 
All  men  obey  his  call, 
Yea,  and  he  cries  to  all, 
Down  on  their  knees  they  fall, 

Trembling  before  him. 


264  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Death  !  no  respecter  he 
Of  person  or  degree, 

In  earth  or  heaven  ; 
Treats  all  alike,  none  pray, 
He  hears  not  what  they  say ; 
Takes  not,  on  festal  day, 

Offerings  given. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  265 


THE   HEROIC  POEM   OF  PEN-TA-UR* 

NINETEENTH   DYNASTY,    I4OO-I2OO   B.C. 

VISITORS  at  Thebes,  to  the  Memnonium,  or  the  tomb 
of  Osymandyas,  better  known  as  the  Ramesseum,  will 
never  forget  two  things — one  the  "  shattered  visage  " 
of  stone,  of  which  an  English  poet  has  sung ;  the  other 
the  great  battle-scene  upon  both  pylons,  which  the 
Egyptian  poet  has  immortalised. 

The  following  translation  is  a  fragment  of  this  heroic 
poem  of  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty,  the  most  remarkable 
epic  poem  in  Egyptian  history. 

Its  author  was  a  not  very  reputable  court-poet 
named  Pen-ta-ur  who,  two  years  after  the  battle  he 
describes,  namely,  in  the  seventh  year  of  Rameses  II. 
1326  B.C.,  won  for  his  prize-poem  the  glory  of  hav- 
ing it  made  a  national  epic,  to  be  inscribed  with 
illustrations,  upon  the  temple  walls,  and  for  himself  a 
deathless  immortality.  The  text  of  the  poem,  written 
in  honour  of  Rameses'  prowess  in  single  combat 
against  the  Khita,  was,  by  command  of  the  King, 


*  The  name  is  also  spelt  Pentaour,  and  by  more  recent  scholars 
Pen-ta-urt. 


266  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

inscribed  upon  the  walls  of  the  temples  of  Abydos, 
Luxor,  Karnak,  the  Ramesseum  and  Ibsambul.  By 
their  enormous  illustrations  on  the  temple-walls  and 
pylons,  the  sculptors  seem  to  have  vied  with  its  author, 
to  make  the  poem  a  permanent  possession  of  the  people. 

He  who  turns  his  back  upon  the  northern 
pylon  at  Luxor  to  pass  down  the  great  Sphinx-dromos 
which  is  now  being  unearthed,  and  so  to  Karnak, 
must  feel  that  that  way  was  really  in  old  time,  a 
triumphal  way  of  the  poem  of  Pen-ta-ur.  For,  there 
on  the  Luxor  pylon,  is  the  poem  pictured,  and  it 
will  be  in  his  mind  all  the  way,  till  he  enters  the  main 
south  gate,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  great  Hall  of 
Columns,  and  lo,  when  entering,  there  on  the  left 
hand  side,  upon  the  wall,  the  text  of  the  poem  is 
written  plain. 

But  it  is  at  the  Ramesseum,  if  he  is  fortunate  in 
obtaining  a  good  light,  that  he  will  best  understand 
the  situations  that  the  poem  describes.  Had  no  poem 
been  written,  those  sculptures,  with  their  tale  of  camp 
life  and  battle,  in  the  time  of  Rameses  the  King,  would 
be  well  worth  going  all  the  way  from  England  to  see. 

As  I  write,  I  can  hardly  help  smiling  at  the  way  in 
which  his  friends,  the  Hittites  of  Kadesh,  who  had 
come  to  the  rescue  of  the  poor  King  of  Aleppo,  are 
tilting  him  up  to  let  the  water  drain  out  of  him,  after 
his  unlucky  bath  in  the  river  Orontes.  The  pictures 
are  as  real  as  they  are  humorous. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  267 

Marietta  Bey  *  may  well  be  quoted  at  length  here : 
"  The  scene  is  laid  in  Syria,  on  the  banks  of  a  river 
which  everything  seems  to  point  out  as  the  Orontes. 
Rameses  is  present  in  person,  and  comes  fully  armed, 
to  dispute  possession  of  the  country,  designated  under 
the  generic  name  of  the  Khetas.  Kadesh  is  the 
nearest  town.  Through  a  concourse  of  circumstances, 
which  do  not  reflect  credit  on  the  Egyptian  generals, 
Rameses  finds  himself  surrounded  by  his  enemies. 
The  soldiers  who  formed  the  escort,  have  taken  flight. 
Rameses  stands  alone,  and  no  one  is  with  him." 

With  unreflecting  valour,  he  throws  himself  among 
the  chariots.  He  kills  the  chiefs  of  the  "  vile  Khetas," 
forces  their  troops  to  recross  the  river  in  hot  haste, 
and  by  personal  courage,  turns  the  threatened  rout 
into  a  complete  victory.  This  brilliant  feat  of  arms 
is  what  the  first  pylon  of  the  Ramesseum  comme- 
morates. 

On  one  side,  Rameses  is  seen  precipitating  himself 
into  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  The  enemy  fly  in 
terror ;  some  are  crashed  under  the  feet  of  the  horses 
and  under  the  chariot-wheels  ;  some  lie  dead  on  the 
ground,  pierced  with  arrows,  shot  by  the  king's  own 
hand ;  others  again  leap  into  the  river  and  are 
drowned.  On  the  opposite  side  the  king  is  repre- 
sented seated  on  his  throne,  his  officers  come  forward 

*  "Monuments  of  Upper  Egypt,"  p.  191. 


268  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

tendering  their  congratulations  ;  but  it  is  with  reproofs 
the  king  receives  them.  "  Not  one  among  you,"  he 
exclaims,  "  has  behaved  well  in  thus  deserting  me, 
and  leaving  me  alone  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy.  The 
princes  and  the  captains  did  not  join  hands  with  me 
in  fight.  I  have  put  to  flight  thousands  of  nations, 
and  I  was  all  alone." 

On  the  interior  fagade  of  the  second  pylon,  one  may 
see,  by  the  evening  light,  the  same  king  in  the  thick  of 
the  battle.  Here  Grabatousa,  the  armour-bearer  of  the 
Prince  of  the  Khita,  falls  pierced  by  the  arrows  of  the 
king ;  there  Rabsounna,  captain  of  the  archers,  meets 
with  the  same  fate.  The  Orontes  lies  in  the  path  of 
the  Khita,  who  fly  in  disorder.  Upon  one  of  the 
pylons,  one  notices  the  square  camp  of  the  Egyptians, 
surrounded  by  its  wall  of  shields,  which  the 
Egyptian  warriors  have  placed  around  it.  The  life  of 
the  camp  servants,  resting  by  their  baggage,  comes 
before  us.  The  asses,  some  of  them  giving  a  little 
trouble,  are  loose  within  the  enclosure.  Pharaoh's 
tent  is  seen  in  the  midst  of  the  camp.  The  favourite 
lion,  "  Tearer-in-pieces,"  stalks  about,  and  near  it  is  the 
shrine  of  the  great  gods  of  Egypt.  When  one  reads 
the  poem  of  Pen-ta-ur,  one  realises  that  all  this 
last  picture  represents  the  encampment  of  the  first 
legion  of  Ammon,  the  body-guard  of  the  king,  that 
gave  way  so  disastrously  on  the  great  day  of  battle. 

Another  wall-sculpture  gives  us  a  spirited  picture  of 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  269 

the  battle,  at  the  critical  moment  of  Rameses'  single- 
handed  victory.  The  river  Orontes  runs  round  two 
sides  of  the  picture,  and  the  flight  of  the  Hittites' 
horses  and  chariots  towards  the  stream,  the  falling 
into  it  of  the  pursued,  "  as  crocodiles  fall  into  the 
water,"  is  graphically  portrayed.  A  copy  of  this  battle- 
scene  is  given  in  Ebers'  "  Egypt,"  vol.  ii.  p.  279. 

The  papyrus  from  which  this  poem  was  originally 
translated,  is  known  as  the  third  Sallier  papyrus,  one 
of  several  that  were  purchased  from  an  Egyptian  sailor, 
by  M.  Sallier  of  Aix,  in  Provence.  It  is  now  in  the 
British  Museum.  It  is  a  copy  of  an  earlier  document. 
It  was  seen  by  Champollion  in  1833,  but  to  Vicomte 
de  Rouget  belongs  the  credit  of  having  first  attempted 
a  full  translation  of  it,  in  the  year  1856. 

Mr.  Goodwin  translated  it  in  1858,  and  Professor 
Lushington's  translation  of  it  is  given  in  vol.  ii.  of 
"  Records  of  the  Past,"  p.  65. 

Henry  Brugsch  Bey,  after  comparing  the  various 
texts  of  the  poem  on  the  monuments,  and  papyri  frag- 
ments, and  having  carefully  studied  the  well-known 
papyrus  of  the  British  Museum,  has  produced  a  very 
full  translation,  a  portion  of  which  is  here  metrically 
rendered. 

Readers  should  compare  Brugsch  Bey's  translation 
("  History  of  the  Pharaohs,"  vol.  ii.  p.  53)  with  that 
of  Professor  Lushington. 


270  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 


THE  HEROIC  POEM  OF  PEN-TA-UR. 

1326   B.C. 

RELATING  THE  VICTORY   OF   RAMESES   II.    OVER  THE 
KHITA,    1328    B.C. 

THEN  the  king  of  Khita-land, 

With  his  warriors  made  a  stand, 

But  he  durst  not  risk  his  hand 

In  battle  with  our  Pharaoh ; 

So  his  chariots  drew  away, 

Unnumbered  as  the  sand, 

And  they  stood,  three  men  of  war 

On  each  car ; 

And  gathered  all  in  force 

Was  the  flower  of  his  army,  for  the  fight  in  full  array, 

But  advance,  he  did  not  dare, 

Foot  or  horse. 


So  in  ambush  there  they  lay, 
North-west  of  Kadesh  town ; 
And  while  these  were  in  their  lair, 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  271 

Others  went  forth  south  of  Kadesh,  on  our  midst,  their 

charge  was  thrown 

With  such  weight,  our  men  went  down, 
For  they  took  us  unaware, 
And  the  legion  of  Pra-Hormakhu  gave  way. 


But  at  the  western  side 

Of  Arunatha's  tide, 

Near  the  city's  northern  wall,  our  Pharaoh  had  his 

place. 

And  they  came  unto  the  king, 
And  they  told  him  our  disgrace  j 
Then  Rameses   uprose,  like  his  father,*  Month,  in 

might, 

All  his  weapons  took  in  hand, 
And  his  armour  did  he  don, 
Just  like  Baal,  fit  for  fight; 

And  the  noble  pair  of  horses  that  carried  Pharaoh  on, 
Lo  !  "  Victory  of  Thebes  "  was  their  name, 
And  from  out  the  royal  stables  of  great  Miamun  they 

came. 

Then  the  king  he  lashed  each  horse, 
And  they  quickened  up  their  course, 

*  Month,  or  Mentu,  as  one  of  the  aspects  of  the  sun-god  Ra, 
was  worshipped  at  Thebes. 


272  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

And  he  dashed  into  the  middle  of  the  hostile,  Hittite 

host, 
'  All  alone,  none  other  with  him,  for  he  counted  not 

the  cost. 

Then  he  looked  behind,  and  found 
That  the  foe  were  all  around, 
Two  thousand  and  five  hundred  of  their  chariots  of 

war; 
And  the  flower  of  the  Hittites,  and  their  helpers,  in  a 

ring- 
Men  of  Masu,  Keshkesh,  Pidasa,  Malunna,  Arathu, 
Qazauadana,  Kadesh,  Akerith,  Leka  and  Khilibu — 
Cut  off  the  way  behind, 
Retreat  he  could  not  find ; 
There  were  three  men  on  each  car, 
And  they  gathered  all  together,  and  closed  upon  the 

king. 
"  Yea,  and  not  one  of  my  princes,  of  my  chief  men 

and  my  great, 

Was  with  me,  not  a  captain,  not  a  knight ; 
For  my  warriors  and  chariots  had  left  me  to  my  fate, 
Not  one  was  there  to  take  his  part  in  fight." 


Then  spake  Pharaoh,  and  he  cried  :  "  Father  Ammon, 

where  art  thou  ? 
Shall  a  sire  forget  his  son  ? 


THE  HYMNS   OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  273, 

Is  there  aught  without  thy  knowledge  I  have  done  ? 

From  the  judgments  of  thy  mouth  when  have  I  gone  ? 

Have  I  e'er  transgressed  thy  word  ? 

Disobeyed,  or  broke  a  vow  ? 

Is  it  right,  who  rules  in  Egypt,  Egypt's  lord, 

Should  e'er  before  the  foreign  peoples  bow, 

Or  own  their  rod  ? 

Whate'er  may  be  the  mind  of  this  Hittite  herdsman- 
horde, 

Sure  Ammon  *  should  stand  higher  than  the  wretch 
who  knows  no  God  ? 

Father  Ammon  is  it  nought 

That  to  thee  I  dedicated  noble  monuments,  and  filled 

Thy  temples  with  the  prisoners  of  war  ? 

That  for  thee  a  thousand  years  shall  stand  the  shrines 
I  dared  to  build  ? 

That  to  thee  my  palace-substance  I  have  brought, 

That  tribute  unto  thee  from  afar 

A  whole  land  comes  to  pay, 

That  to  thee  ten  thousand  oxen  for  sacrifice  I  fell, 

And  burn  upon  thine  altars  the  sweetest  woods  that 
smell ; 

That  all  thy  heart  required,  my  hand  did  ne'er  gainsay. 

I  have  built  for  thee  tall  gatesand  wondrous  works, 
beside  the  Nile, 

I  have  raised  thee  mast  on  mast, 

For  eternity  to  last, 

*  The  king,  probably,  is  here  identifying  himself  with  Ammon. 

S 


274  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

From  Elephantin's  isle 
The  obelisks  for  thee  I  have  conveyed, 
It  is  I  who  brought  alone 
The  everlasting  stone, 
It  is  I  who  sent  for  thee, 
The  ships  upon  the  sea, 

To  pour  into  thy  coffers  the  wealth  of  foreign  trade ; 
Is  it  told  that  such  a  thing 
By  any  other  king, 
At  any  other  time,  was  done  at  all  ? 
Let  the  wretch  be  put  to  shame 
Who  refuses  thy  commands, 
But  honour  to  his  name 
Who  to  Ammon  lifts  his  hands. 
To  the  full  of  my  endeavour, 
With  a  willing  heart  for  ever, 
I  have  acted  unto  thee, 
And  to  thee  great  God  I  call ; 
For  behold  !  now  Ammon,  I, 
In  the  midst  of  many  peoples,  all  unknown, 
Unnumbered  as  the  sand, 
Here  I  stand, 
All  alone ; 

There  is  no  one  at  my  side, 
My  warriors  and  chariots  afeared, 
Have  deserted  me,  none  heard 

My   voice,   when  to   the   cravens   I,  their   king,  for 
succour,  cried. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  275 

But  I  find  that  Ammon's  grace 

Is  better  far  to  me 

Than  a  million  fighting  men  and  ten  thousand  chariots 

be. 
Yea,  better  than  ten  thousand,  be  they  brother,  be 

they  son, 

When  with  hearts  that  beat  like  one, 
Together  for  to  help  me  they  are  gathered  in  one 

place. 
The  might  of  men  is  nothing,  it  is  Ammon  who  is 

lord, 
What  has  happened  here  to  me  is  according  to  thy 

word, 

And  I  will  not  now  transgress  thy  command  ; 
But  alone,  as  here  I  stand, 
To  thee  my  cry  I  send, 
Unto  earth's  extremest  end, 
Saying,  "  Help  me,  father  Ammon,  against  the  Hittite 

horde." 


Then  my  voice   it   found   an  echo  in    Hermonthis' 

temple-hall, 

Ammon  heard  it,  and  he  came  unto  my  call ; 
And  for  joy  I  gave  a  shout, 
From  behind,  his  voice  cried  out, 
"  I  have  hastened  to  thee,  Ramses  Miamun, 


276  NOTES  FOR    THE  NILE 

Behold  !  I  stand  with  thee, 

Behold !  'tis  I  am  he, 

Own  father  thine,  the  great  god  Ra,  the  sun. 

Lo  !  mine  hand  with  thine  shall  fight, 

And  mine  arm  is  strong  above 

The  hundreds  of  ten  thousands,  who  against  thee  do 

unite, 

Of  victory  am  I  lord,  and  the  brave  heart  do  I  love, 
I  have  found  in  thee  a  spirit  that  is  right, 
And  my  soul  it  doth  rejoice  in  thy  valour  and  thy 

might. 


Then  all  this  came  to  pass,  I  was  changed  in  my  heart 

Like  Monthu,  god  of  war,  was  I  made, 

With  my  left  hand  hurled  the  dart, 

With  my  right  I  swung  the  blade, 

Fierce  as  Baal  in  his  time,  before  their  sight. 

Two  thousand  and  five  hundred  pairs  of  horses  were 

around, 

And  I  flew  into  the  middle  of  their  ring, 
By  my  horse-hoofs  they  were  dashed  all  in  pieces  to 

the  ground, 

None  raised  his  hand  in  fight, 
For  the  courage  in  their  breasts  had  sunken  quite ; 
And  their  limbs  were  loosed  for  fear, 
And  they  could  not  hurl  the  dart, 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  277 

And  they  had  not  any  heart 

To  use  the  spear ; 

And  I  cast  them  to  the  water, 

Just  as  crocodiles  fall  in  from  the  bank, 

So  they  sank. 

And  they  tumbled  on  their  faces,  one  by  one, 

At  my  pleasure  I  made  slaughter, 

So  that  none 

E'er  had  time  to  look  behind,  or  backward  fled ; 

Where  he  fell,  did  each  one  lay 

On  that  day, 

From  the  dust  none  ever  lifted  up  his  head. 


Then  the'  wretched  king  of  Khita,  he  stood  still, 
With  his  warriors  and  his  chariots  all  about  him  in  a 

ring, 

Just  to  gaze  upon  the  valour  of  our  king 
In  the  fray. 

And  the  king  was  all  alone, 
Of  his  men  and  chariots  none 
To  help  him;  but  the  Hittite  of  his  gazing  soon  had 

fill, 

For  he  turned  his  face  in  flight,  and  sped  away. 
Then  his  princes  forth  he  sent, 
To  battle  with  our  lord, 
Well  equipped  with  bow  and  sword 
And  all  goodly  armament, 


278  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Chiefs  of  Leka,  Masa,  Kings  of  Malunna,  Arathu, 
Qar-qa-mash,  of  the  Dardani,  of  Keshkesh,  Khilibu. 
And  the  brothers  of  the  king  were  all  gathered  in  one 

place, 

Two  thousand  and  five  hundred  pairs  of  horse — 
And  they  came  right  on  in  force, 
The  fury  of  their  faces  to  the  flaming  of  my  face. 


Then,  like  Monthu  in  his  might, 

I  rushed  orr  them  apace, 

And  I  let  them  taste  my  hand 

In  a  twinkling  moment's  space. 

Then  cried  one  unto  his  mate, 

"  This  is  no  man,  this  is  he, 

This  is  Suteck,  god  of  hate, 

With  Baal  in  his  blood  ; 

Let  us  hasten,  let  us  flee, 

Let  us  save  our  souls  from  death, 

Let  us  take  to  heel  and  try  our  lungs  and  breath." 

And  before  the  king's  attack, 

Hands  fell,  and  limbs  were  slack, 

They  could  neither  aim  the  bow,  nor  thrust  the 

spear, 

But  just  looked  at  him  who  came 
Charging  on  them,  like  a  flame, 
And  the  King  was  as  a  griffin  in  the  rear. 


THE  HYMNS  OF  ANCIENT  EGYPT  279 

(Behold  thus  speaks  the  Pharaoh,  let  all  know), 
"  I  struck  them  down,  and  there  escaped  me  none. 
Then  I  lifted  up  my  voice,  and  I  spake, 
Ho  !  my  warriors,  charioteers, 
Away  with  craven  fears, 
Halt,  stand,  and  courage  take, 
Behold  I  am  alone, 

Yet  Ammon  is  my  helper,  and  his  hand  is  with  me 
now." 


When  my  Menna,  charioteer,  beheld  in  his  dismay, 
How  the  horses  swarmed  around  us,  lo  !  his  courage 

fled  away, 

And  terror  and  affright 
Took  possession  of  him  quite  ; 
And  straightway  he  cried  out  to  me,  and  said, 
"Gracious  lord  and  bravest  king,  saviour-guard 
Of  Egypt  in  the  battle,  be  our  ward ; 
Behold  we  stand  alone,  in  the  hostile  Hittite  ring, 
Save  for  us  the  breath  of  life, 
Give  deliverance  from  the  strife, 
Oh !  protect    us,    Ramses  Miamun !    Oh !    save   us, 

mighty  King ! " 

Then   the  King    spake  to  his  squire,   "  Halt !    take 
courage,  charioteer, 


280  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

As  a  sparrow-hawk  swoops  down  upon  his  prey, 

So  I  swoop  upon  the  foe,  and  I  will  slay, 

I  will  hew  them  into  pieces,  I  will  dash  them  into  dust ; 

Have  no  fear, 

Cast  such  evil  thought  away, 

These  godless  men  are  wretches  that  in  Ammon  put 

no  trust." 
Then  the   king,  he  hurried  forward,  on   the  Hittite 

host  he  flew, 
"  For  the  sixth  time  that  I  charged  them,"  says  the 

king — and  listen  well, 
•"  Like  Baal  in  his  strength,  on  their  rearward,  lo  !   I 

fell, 
And  I  killed  them,  none  escaped  me,  and  I  slew,  and 

slew,  and  slew." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE   WORLD  : 
"  THE  PRECEPTS  OF  PTAH-HOTEP." 

FIFTH  DYNASTY,  3366-3266  B.C. 

IT  is,  unfortunately,  the  custom  nowadays,  to  look  at 
the  title  of  a  book,  and  then  to  turn  to  its  last  pages  ; 
for  the  convenience  of  readers,  the  most  important 
chapter  of  this  little  book,  u  Notes  for  the  Nile,"  is 
therefore  put  last. 

Tl\ere  is  something  very  interesting  in  being  able  to 
read  the  oldest  book  in  the  world;  thanks  to  the 
indefatigable  labours  of  M.  Philippe  Virey,  and  to  all 
who  have  helped  him  in  his  battle,  against  overwhelm- 
ing difficulties  in  Egyptian  philology,  this  is  now 
possible  for  us. 

The  Prisse  papyrus,  discovered  at  Thebes,  and  now 
preserved  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris,  is  the 
oldest  papyrus  in  the  world.  M.  Chabas,  who  first 
made  known  the  contents  of  this  treatise,  in  his  essay 
in  the  "Revue  Archeologique  "  in  1857,  described  it 


282  NOTES   FOR   THE  NILE 

as  "  Le  plus  ancien  livre  du  monde,"  and,  since  the 
papyrus  belongs  to  the  eleventh  dynasty,  and  was 
written  about  2500  B.C.,  this  is  no  overstatement ;  yet, 
old  as  the  papyrus  is,  it  contains  but  a  copy  of  a  much 
older  treatise,  written  down  by  a  certain  viceroy  or 
governor  of  Egypt,  Patah-hotep  or  Ptah-hotep,  or, 
according  to  later  spelling,  Ptah-hetep,  the  son  of  the 
seventh  king  of  the  fifth  dynasty,  Assa  or  Tet-ka-ra, 
who  began  to  reign  somewhere  about  the  year 
3366  B.C. 

We  have  it  from  the  lips  of  this  old  philosopher, 
Ptah-hotep,  that  these  precepts  were  but  a  compila- 
tion, a  gathering  together  of  the  sayings  of  the  wise, 
that  had  been  current  probably  for  centuries  before 
his  time.  So  then,  if  we  would  have  a  glimpse  at  the 
ways  and  thoughts  of  men  in  the  pyramid  or  pre- 
pyramid  days,  and  would  understand  something  of  the 
moral  and  social  code  and  condition  of  the  people  in 
the  earliest  historic  times  of  the  oldest  civilisation 
whereof  the  world  holds  record,  we  must  turn  to  the 
"  Precepts  of  Ptah-hotep."  If  we  wish  to  be  wise  with 
the  most  ancient  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  we  must 
thank  the  wise  old  prefect  who,  high  in  station,  with 
no  summers  on  his  head,  full  of  years,  dignity  and 
wisdom,  determined  to  set  down  all  the  proverbs  of 
his  day,  in  rhythmic  order  and  metrical  arrangement, 
that  so  they  might  be  the  better  remembered,  from 
generation  to  generation. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD        283 

Travellers  to  Egypt  who  visit  the  Gizeh  Museum 
will  remember  the  tomb-monument  of  a  contemporary 
Ptah-hotep.  They  will  have  noted  the  great,  grey  granite 
stele,  brought  from  this  old  pluralisms  grave,  whereon 
may  be  seen  upon  the  side  lintels,  the  pictures  of  his 
four  sons,  for  whose  benefit  they  may,  if  they  will, 
imagine  that  the  prefect  was  moved  to  compile  the 
"  precepts."  This  older  Ptah-hotep  was  a  priest  of 
the  Pyramids  of  Aser,  Ra-en-user  and  the  "  divine 
dwelling  of  Men-kau-Hor,"  and  lived  in  the  fifth 
dynasty. 

As  they  gazed  at  the  lintel-head  they  will  have 
observed  this  pyramid-priest,  Ptah-hotep,  seated  at 
the  table  of  offerings,  the  "  menu "  of  his  repast 
carved  on  the  stone  behind  him.  Nor  will  they  have 
omitted  to  visit  the  interesting  tomb  of  the  old  priest 
itself,  close  to  Mariette's  house  at  Sakkarah. 

But  those  who  would  understand  more  of  the  life 
and  labour  of  the  wise  old  prefect,  whom  we  may 
piously  imagine  was  related  to  the  Ptah-hotep  of 
Gizeh  Museum  fame,  and  learn  something  of  the  kind 
of  life  he  led  when  he  was  in  the  flesh,  and  when  he 
was  gathering  together  his  proverbs  more  than  5000 
years  ago,  will  risk  being  bitten  by  the  dog  of  the 
doorkeeper,  and  will  make  a  point  of  inspecting  the 
tomb  of  a  prefect  of  later  days,  one  Rechmara,  who 
was  buried  in  the  hot  hillside  of  Abd  El  Kurnah, 
above  the  Ramesseum,  in  a  tomb,  numbered  to-day 


284  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

by  Wilkinson  (35)  and  by  Champollion  (25),and  whose 
tomb-chambers,  though  woefully  battered,  are  full  of 
paintings  and  texts  that  illustrate  the  wisdom  and 
life  of  Ptah-hotep. 

This  Rechmara  was  prefect  under  Thothmes  III.,  in 
the  eighteenth  dynasty,  1600  B.C.  ;  but  though  2000 
years  separate  this  time  from  the  viceroyalty  of  Ptah- 
hotep,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  unchanging  Egypt  was 
little  altered,  and  the  duties  and  ethics  of  the  prefect 
and  magistrate  in  the  time  of  Ptah-hotep  the  sage, 
when  Assa  was  king,  were  much  the  same  as  they 
were  when  Thothmes  III.  was  on  the  throne  and 
Rechmara  was  keeper  of  the  royal  granaries. 

This  "oldest  book  in  the  world,"  though  it 
emphasises  the  fast-fading  pictures  upon  the  walls  of 
Rechmara's  tomb,  which  may  be  said  to  be  a  kind  of 
later  illustrated  edition  of  the  work,  has  its  chiefest 
interest  for  us,  in  being  a  handbook  to  the  condition 
of  thought  and  life  and  labour,  of  social  and  moral 
condition  and  code,  in  the  centuries  that  span  the 
gulf  between  the  time  of  the  Pyramids  and  the 
fifth  dynasty,  and  the  reign  of  the  Antef  and  the 
eleventh  dynasty  kings. 

Yet  again,  as  we  listen  to  Ptah-hotep,  there  come 
home  to  us  echoes  of  a  much  'later  date  than  the  date 
of  the  Antefs.  Echoes  of  the  Book  of  Job  and  Wisdom 
of  Solomon — Whispers  of  the  Hebraic  decalogue. 
Such  words  as  "Good  words  are  more  difficult  to  find 


THE   OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD        285 

than  the  emerald ; "  "  If  thou  art  a  wise  man  bring  up 
thy  son  in  the  fear  of  God ; "  "  If  any  one  beareth 
himself  proudly  he  will  be  humbled  by  God  who 
maketh  his  strength ; "  "A  dutiful  son  will  have  long 
days  in  the  land  on  that  account ; "  "A  good  son  is 
one  of  the  gifts  of  God  " — such  words,  from  "  the  oldest 
book  in  the  world,"  irresistibly  remind  one  of  the  best 
book  in  the  world  to-day.  Joseph,  in  like  position  as 
Ptah-hotep,  may  have  got  these  precepts  by  heart. 
Nor  can  one  help  the  thought  that  Moses,  learned  in 
all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  would  probably  have 
been  made  familiar  with  this  ancient  book  of  Egyptian 
teaching,  during  his  stay  at  the  City  of  the  Sun. 

Turning  to  the  precepts  of  Ptah-hotep,  one  is 
not  only  touched  by  the  simplicity  and  directness  of 
their  teaching,  but  one  feels  their  humanity.  We  are 
kinder  to  that  old  Egyptian  dawn  of  history  that  needs 
our  kindness,  because  we  feel  we  have  one  human 
heart. 

Thirty-three  centuries  may  have  passed  since  the 
words  were  written ;  but  what  can  be  more  human 
and  powerful,  in  its  appeal  to  right-mindedness,  than 
the  following  Precept  xxx. : 

"  If  thou  become  great,  after  thou  hast  been  little,  if 
thou  hast  become  rich  after  thou  hast  been  poor,  when 
thou  art  at  the  head  of  the  city,  know  well  how  to 
use  the  position  that  thou  hast  gained.  Harden  not 
thy  heart  because  of  thy  rank,  remember  that  thou  art 


286  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

become  only  the  steward  of  the  good  things  of  God. 
Put  not  behind  thee  thy  neighbour  who  is  as  thou 
once  wast.  Treat  him  as  an  equal." 

Throughout  these  tl  Precepts  "  one  finds  not  only 
simplicity,  directness,  and  high-mindedness,  but  great 
refinement. 

Subjects  that  are  very  difficult  to  handle  are  dealt 
with,  with  the  utmost  delicacy.  Indeed,  it  is  possible 
that  the  entire  absence  of  reference  to  death,  or  the 
dead,  may  have  been  just  a  piece  of  the  good-breeding 
of  the  writer  who  knew  the  feeling  of  his  time  and  his 
audience,  on  such  matters. 

This  old-world  Lord  Chesterfield  is  addressing  him- 
self to  an  upper  and  educated  class,  and  his  appeal  to 
the  gentlemanly  in  man,  is  constant. 

There  are,  it  is  clear,  two  distinct  classes  in  the 
country — the  governing  and  the  governed.  This  it  is 
felt  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  men  had  better  be  con- 
tent But  whilst  instant  obedience  and  fidelity  are 
expected  of  the  servant,  the  master  is  bound  to  be 
kind  and  considerate;  and  if  one  belongs  to  the 
magistrate  or  the  land-owning  classes,  magistrate  and 
proprietor  must  realise  that  wealth  and  power  imply 
duties,  and  lay  great  responsibilities  upon  those  in 
whose  hands  the  privilege  lies. 

Men  who  climb  to  high  state,  must  be  clothed  with 
humility.  Men  in  high  estate  must  wear  "  the  white 
flower  of  a  blameless  life,"  must  be  fearlessly  just,  be 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE    WORLD        287 

instant  in  protecting  the  fallen,  and  in  seeing  that  the 
poor  of  the  earth  have  right. 

Charitableness,  peaceableness  and  content,  libe- 
rality, temperance,  chastity,  sobriety,  energy  in  daily 
business,  truthfulness,  kindness,  dutifulness  and  good 
temper,  and  calmness  of  mind — all  these  things  are 
inculcated  as  being  good  for  the  souls  of  men 
and  the  nation's  life,  in  the  days  of  Assa  the  king ; 
and  one  wonders  whether  the  nineteenth  century 
has  found  a  more  excellent  way.  It  is  neverthe- 
less true  that  prudence,  and  not  self-sacrifice  and 
love,  is  the  motive  for  the  practical  wisdom  that  is 
inculcated. 

Ptah-hotep  has  some  useful  advice  to  give  young 
men,  in  their  treatment  of  young  women.  He  has 
counsel  to  give  the  married  men,  in  their  treatment  of 
their  wives.  But  it  is  as  an  instructor  of  youth,  and 
in  his  advice  to  fathers  on  the  training  up  the  child  in 
the  way  it  should  go,  that  the  old  proverb-maker 
seems  most  in  earnest. 

The  home  was  the  foundation  of  society  in  his 
mind:  the  best  school  of  duty  and  loyalty  to  king 
and  country,  was  the  family. 

That  he  knew  the  ways  of  children  and  their 
memories,  is  evident  from  his  determination  to  put  his 
advice  into  metrical  form,  that  so  they  might  be  pre- 
served to  posterity.  One  wishes  one  knew  more  of 
those  old  Egyptian  metres.  All  that  is  probable  is, 


288  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

that  accent,  not  rhyme,  was  depended  on  to  give  true 
natural  effect. 

The  emphasis  laid  by  Ptah-hotep  upon  the  need 
of  accurate  oral  tradition,  looks  as  if  books,  in  his 
time,  were  scarce;  yet  it  is  clear,  from  reading  the 
precepts,  that  wisdom  and  greatness  were  then 
synonymous  terms — the  truly  wise  ones  were  the 
truly  great. 

If  we  had  any  doubt  as  to  the  far-advanced  con- 
dition of  civilisation  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  in  the 
year  3366  B.C.,  a  peep  at  the  precepts  of  Ptah-hotep, 
the  Prince,  would  dispel  it.  A  book  that  makes  the 
Pyramid  age  possible  to  us;  a  book  that  fills  the 
tombs  of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  dynasties  with 
voices;  that  opens  the  diorite  lips  of  Chephren,  and  sets 
the  statues  of  Tih,  Ra  Nefer,  Ra-hetep,  Nefert,  Ptah- 
hotep  and  the  Shek  El  Beled  talking  to  us,  and  telling 
us  of  their  thought  and  feeling,  that  makes  the  Salle 
de  1'Ancien  Empire,  in  the  Gizeh  Museum,  eloquent, 
is  a  book  of  proverbs,  much  to  be  thankful  for. 

This  metrical  rendering  is  based  upon  the  English 
translation  of  M.  Philippe  Virey,  published  in  the 
new  series  of  "  Records  of  the  Past "  (vol.  iii.  p.  16). 

I  have  at  times  availed  myself  of  the  variorum 
readings  and  literal  translations  given  in  the  footnotes, 
and  where  lacunae  occur,  I  have  had  to  make  a  guess 
at  the  meaning  from  the  context.  This  is  notably  the 
case  with  Precept  xxxn. 


v     THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD        289 

The  metre  has  been  varied  where  possible  to  pre- 
vent weariness.  Blank  verse  has  only  been  adopted 
where  the  matter  seemed  to  demand  it,  and  there, 
form  has  been  sacrificed  to  the  need  of  literal 
rendering.  Titles  to  the  different  precepts  have  been 
added  for  the  convenience  of  the  reader. 

The  sayings  of  Ptah-hotep  himself,  as  opposed  to 
those  he  collected  and  reduced  to  metre  (xxxvii.  to 
xliv.),  have  been  indicated. 


290  NOTES  FOR   THE   NILE 


THE  PRECEPTS  OF  PTAH-HOTEP. 

3366-3266    B.C. 

THE  precepts  of  the  prefect,  feudal  lord 
Ptah-hotep,  he  who  lived  when  Assa  reigned, 
Assa,  the  king  of  Egypt,  north  and  south, 
Assa,  who  lives  to  all  eternity. 


Thus  doth  the  feudal  lord,  Ptah-hotep,  say, 
"  O  god,  whose  feet  are  on  the  crocodiles,* 
Osiris  !     Man  unto  his  dotage  falls, 
Decay  comes  on  him,  and  his  years  decline, 
Youth's  glory  fades ;  each  day  an  old  man's  heart 
Is  vexed  and  wearied  more ;  his  eyes  go  blind, 
His  ear  grows  deaf,  and  ceaselessly  his  strength 

*  It  is  believed  that  this  is  a  reference  to  the  43rd  invocation 
of  the  I42nd  chapter  of  "The  Book  of  the  Dead  " — "  O  Osiris  ! 
God  of  the  two  crocodiles  !  " — but  visitors  to  the  Gizeh  Museum 
will  observe  the  beautiful  stele  of  Horus  on  the  crocodiles,  "  the 
aged  who  becomes  young  in  his  hour,  the  old  man  who  becomes 
a  child,"  and  may  draw  their  own  inference. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD         291 

Dissolves  and  dwindles,  lo  !  his  mouth  is  dumb, 

He  speaks  not  as  he  spoke  ;  his  feeble  mind 

Remembers  not  the  deeds  of  yesterday. 

Yea,  his  whole  body  suffers  ;  good  is  ill, 

Taste  disappears.     Ah,  miserable  man  ! 

Age  is  thy  misery,  the  nostrils  cease 

To  drink  the  breath  of  heaven,  the  lungs  grow  weak, 

To  sit  or  stand  is  utter  weariness. 

Who  then  shall  give  my  tongue  authority 

To  tell  the  young  the  counsels  from  of  old  ? 

What  power  will  grant  me  sanction  to  declare 

Counsels  divine  —  the  counsels  heard  from  Heaven  ? 

Oh,  God,  permit  me,  send  me  double  grace, 

And  let  these  evils  be  removed  from  them 

Who  are  enlightened." 

Answer  makes  the  god  : 
"  Instruct  them  in  the  counsels  from  of  old, 
For  wisdom  from  of  old  it  is  that  makes 
The  merit  of  the  children  of  the  great, 
For  that  which  gives  equality  of  soul 
Doth  pierce  the  heart  that  hears  it  ;  wisdom  cries, 
And  of  her  voice  is  no  satiety." 


Here  doth  begin  the  rhythmic  ordering 
Of  those  wise  sayings  spoken  by  the  lord, 
Father  divine  and  well-beloved  of  God, 
Son  of  the  King,  and  first-born  of  his  race 


292  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

The  prefect,  hight  Ptah-hotep,  feudal  lord, 
Set  down  to  give  the  ignorant  and  fools 
A  knowledge  of  each  precept's  argument. 
To  him  who  hears,  these  words  are  profitable  ; 
To  him  who  shall  transgress  them,  endless  loss 
Thus  doth  he  speak,  in  counsel  to  his  son. 

ii". 
ON  WISDOM  AND  HUMILITY. 

Be  not  of  your  learning  vain, 

Treat  the  simple  and  the  wise 

With  like  honour.  Open  lies 
Art's  great  gate  for  all,  and  they 
Who  have  entered  by  that  way, 

Know,  how  still  before  them  flies 
The  perfection  they  would  gain. 
But  wise  sayings  hidden  are, 

Like  the  emerald  that  is  mined, 

Or  the  hard-won  gem,  slaves  find 
Packed  within  the  quartz  and  spar. 


in. 
ON  DEALING  WITH  TEMPER. 

If  a  man  in  a  passion  you  meet, 
And  you  know  he  is  really  your  master, 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD          293 

Give  way,  nor  get  into  a  heat, 

Hands  off,  and  so  save  a  disaster. 
He  will  stick  to  his  version,  my  friend, 

Interruption  is  idle  and  wrong, 
Keep  cool,  you  will  win  in  the  end, 

Contradicted,  just  govern  your  tongue. 

If  you  deal  with  a  disputant  hot, 

Be  like  one  who  refuses  to  stir, 
When  he  rails  and  abuses,  rail  not ! 

And  so  you  will  vanquish  him,  sir. 
For  the  bystanders,  hearing  the  din, 

Say — "  The  man  who  provoked,  shows  no  fight, 
Is  the  best  of  the  two  " — you  will  win, 

In  the  minds  of  the  great,  you  are  right. 


IV. 

ON  KEEPING  TEMPER. 

If  a  disputant  you  find 
In  a  rage,  do  not  deride, 
For  that  you  and  he 
Cannot  well  agree, 
Take  a  different  side ; 
And  because  his  mind 


294  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

Differs,  yea,  though  he  be  wrong, 
Be  not  angered,  rather  fling 
Far  the  thought  of  such  a  thing, 
For  consider  well  this  matter, 
How  against  himself,  the  tongue 
Of  a  man  in  wrongful  ire, 
Fights,  and  wherefore  still  require 
That  your  feelings  he  should  flatter  ? 
Never  in  the  sight,  take  pleasure, 
Of  a  man  beyond  control, 
Though  his  rage  amusing  be, 
He  who  does  so,  out  of  measure 
Odious  is  of  soul, 
Mean  and  despicable  he. 
But  beware  of  being  moved 
By  your  feelings,  have  good  heed, 
He  who  lets  his  feelings  lead, 
By  the  great  one  is  reproved. 


v. 
ON  LAW  AND  ORDER. 

If,  as  a  leader,  thou  art  called  to  give 
Judgment  on  others,  see  thou  take  great  care, 
So  that  thy  conduct  be  esteemed  fair, 

And  strive  without  reproach,  thyself  to  live. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD    2 

Who  hinders  law,  for  violence  makes  way, 
No  mob  the  upper  hand  can  ever  gain, 
If  justice  on  the  judgment-seat  remain, 
And  Right-is-might,  not  Might-is-right  hath  sway. 

The  ends  of  justice  change  not,  ever  one 
In  scope,  so  doth  the  father  teach  the  son. 


VI. 

ON  TRUE  INFLUENCE. 

Him,  who  tries  to  rule  by  dread, 
God  in  turn  will  rule  by  fright, 
He  who  boasts  that  fear,  is  might, 

God  will  from  his  mouth  take  bread. 

If  a  man  through  fear,  be  grown 
Wealthy,  God  will  claim  his  land, 
If  he  boast  a  bully's  hand, 

God  shall  break  the  bully  down. 

God  wills  none  should  make  afraid, 
Grant  the  people  means  to  live 
Peacefully,  they  will  regive 

Toll,  not  grudged,  but  gladly  paid. 


196  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

VII. 
ON  MANNERS  AT  TABLE. 

If  it  chance  to  a  dinner  you  go 

At  the  house  of  a  man  that  is  great, 
Take  that  which  is  put  on  on  your  plate, 

And  bow,  sir,  exceedingly  low. 

Look  well  at  whatever  is  placed 

In  front,  but  don't  point  with  the  finger, 
Nor  too  long  let  your  eyes  on  it  linger, 

For  to  stare,  is  not  very  good  taste. 

Do  not  bother  your  host  with  your  chatter, 
For  you  never  know  quite  what  will  please, 
If  he  speaks  to  you,  be  at  your  ease, 

Talk  away  as  you  like,  and  no  matter. 

For  the  rich  man,  the  great  among  men, 
Does  just  what  he  likes  with  his  own, 
If  he  chooses  he  lays  himself  down 

And  goes  off  to  sleep,  there  and  then. 

Just  the  wave  of  a  hand,  all  is  well 
All  is  done — if  who  waves  it  is  great ; 
But  God  it  is  gives  us  our  state, 

Rich  or  poor,  and  we  cannot  rebel. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN   THE    WORLD         297 
VIII. 

ON  ERRAND-GOING. 

If  on  any  errand  sent, 
Be  upon  the  thing  intent, 
Just  as  it  was  charged  thee,  ever 
Certainly  the  charge  deliver ; 
Alter  not  a  single  word, 
Though  it  may  offend  my  lord  ; 
He  who,  just  to  please  the  ears 
Of  the  man  to  whom  he  bears 
Message,  be  he  small  or  great, 
From  the  truth  one  jot  will  bate, 
Is  a  rogue  we  all  must  hate. 


IX. 

ON  HONEST  DEALING. 

If  you  farm,  reap  the  crops  of  your  field 
Which  the  great  god  has  given  to  till, 
Nor  your  mouth  at  your  neighbour's  house  fill, 

Better  far  the  extortioner's  yield. 


298  NOTES  FOR   THE  NILE 

In  a  little  exaction,  what  harm  ? 

But  to  steal,  no  !     The  man  who  is  law 
To  himself,  and  with  crocodile-jaw, 

Will  seize  on  his  poor  neighbour's  farm — 

His  children  we  curse  and  we  scorn  ; 
His  father,  he  grieves  for  his  child, 
His  mother  with  sorrow  goes  wild  ; 

Better  far  that  no  child  had  been  born. 

But  the  man  of  his  tribe  who  is  head, 
Because  that  he  always  has  trod 
In  probity's  path,  is  as  god ; 

They  will  fellow  wherever  he  tread. 


x. 

ON  KEEPING  ONE'S  PLACE. 

If,  in  obedience  to  your  master's  will, 
You  evil  do,  the  gods  will  think  no  ill. 
And  once  you  know  who  master  is,  who  slave, 
Then  keep  your  place ;  respectfully  behave, 
Considering  where  respect  is  justly  due, 
And  who  has  full  authority  o'er  you. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE    WORLD         299 

Whether  good  fortune  come,  or  bad  betide, 
Is  fortune's  law,  caprice  her  only  guide. 
But  he  who  treats  his  servants  ill,  will  find 
That  God  who  gave  him  power  to  rule  his  kind, 
Will  in  a  moment  turn  from  him,  and  lo  ! 
Great  is  the  one-time  great  man's  overthrow. 


XI. 

ON  ACTIVITY  IN  BUSINESS. 

Be  active,  be  up  and  be  doing, 

Yea  more  than  your  master  had  bidden, 

For  the  indolent  comes  but  to  ruin, 
The  man  who  wastes  time  should  be  chidden. 

Never  lose  any  chance  of  increasing 
The  goods  that  your  household  possesses, 

Business  grows — with  your  energy  ceasing, 
There  will  cease  too,  the  income  that  blesses. 


XII. 

ON  TRAINING  UP  A  CHILD  IN  THE  WAY  HE 
SHOULD  Go. 

If  thou  art  wise,  then  train  thy  child  to  be 
Devout,  well-pleasing  unto  God,  and  see 


300  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

f 

If  he  conform  his  conduct  to  thy  way 
And  does  his  duty,  that  thy  love  repay ; 
Flesh  of  thy  flesh,  and  of  thy  bone  a  bone, 
Ne'er  let  thy  heart  be  separate  from  thy  son ; 
But  if  he  misbehave,  transgress  thy  will, 
Reject  thy  counsel,  and  advised  by  ill, 
Run  counter  to  thy  wishes,  then  be  stern, 
And  strike  the  mouth  that  struck  thee,  in  return. 
Instant  commands  for  him  who  does  not  well 
Is  best,  so  shalt  thou  turbulent  temper  quell, 
So  from  his  duty's  path  he  shall  not  stray, 
And  nothing  mar  the  tenor  of  his  way. 


XIII. 

ON  STORE-KEEPING. 

Stand,  sit,  but  do  not  fuss  and  walk  about, 
If  you  are  keeper  of  a  Public  Store,* 

*  The  Public  Store,  or  "Larit,"  here  spoken  of,  was  the 
strongly-walled  enclosure  into  which  was  brought  the  contribu- 
tions of  corn,  by  the  taxpayer  for  public  use  in  time  of  famine 
Cf.  Gen.  xlvii.  24.  The  tax  was  heavy.  When  men  paid  of  their 
crop  as  they  did  to  Joseph,  there  would  be  wry  faces,  hence  Pre- 
cept xxxiv.  The  Prefect  alone  had  the  key  of  the  Larit.  It 
was  one  of  his  most  most  onerous  duties  to  superintend  the  filling 
and  guarding  of  the  store.  Travellers  should  study  the  picture 
of  Filling  the  Larit  on  Rechmara's  tomb,  at  Thebes. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD 

And  make  this  rule,  you  never  will  be  out, 
Absent,  off  duty,  yea  though  wearied  sore. 

If  any  entering  would  communicate 
Secrets,  keep  eyes  on  him,  and  him  suspect ; 

Your  trust  is  more  than  most  appreciate, 
All  argument  against  its  worth,  reject. 

Know  this,  where  unrelaxing  rule  is  made, 
One  for  the  privileged  classes  and  the  poor, 

A  god  alone  the  storehouse  can  invade, 
But  God  will  enter  at  that  Granary  door. 


XIV. 

ON  SELF-MASTERY. 

If  it  chance  that  with  people  you  are, 

Who  appear  to  be  deeply  in  love, 
Saying,  "  Soul  of  my  soul,  my  life's  star, 

What  cure  can  my  passion  remove  ? 
Whatever  thy  heart  says,  let  it  be 

On  the  instant  spontaneously  done, 
Sovereign  master  I  yield  unto  thee, 

Thy  opinion  and  mine,  are  as  one. 

"  Thy  name  without  speech,  is  approved, 
Thy  body  with  vigour  doth  shine, 


302  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Oh  face  of  all  faces,  beloved, 

More  than  all  is  the  face  that  is  thine." 
Then  I  know,  used  to  flattery,  sir, 

If  aught  cross  thy  desire  on  its  way, 
There's  an  impulse  within  thee  will  stir, 

Its  passion  thy  heart  will  obey. 

But  remember  the  man  who  gives  in 

To  passion's  caprice  and  its  call, 
His  soul  is  the  servant  of  sin, 

His  body  to  death  is  in  thrall. 
But  he  who  is  lord  of  his  soul, 

Lives  more  than  a  god-gifted  life, 
While  the  man,  whom  his  passions  control, 

Is  under  the  sway  of  his  wife. 


xv. 

ON  HONEST  SPEECH. 

Declare  thy  line,  have  done  with  reticence, 
Yea,  even  in  the  council  of  thy  lord 

Speak  out  thy  mind,  let  others  backward  go, 
And  in  their  speeches  swallow  their  own  word, 
Lest  peradventure  they  should  give  offence, 
Be  not  as  they,  nor  feign,  nor  answer,  so 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          303 

Saying,  "  My  friends  the  man  who  plain  can  see, 
How  wrong  the  rest  are,  he  alone  is  wise, 

And  when  the  great  wise  man  doth  deign  oppose 
Error,  and  lift  his  voice,  make  no  replies, 
Rather  let  all  be  silent  after  me, 

Surely  the  great  and  wise  man  only,  knows." 


XVI. 

ON  TRUE  TEACHING. 

If  thou  a  teacher  be, 
Set  forth  thy  plan, 
As  thou  decidest,  see 
Thou  play  the  man. 

Do  what  is  good  and  just, 
Perfect,  complete ; 
Deeds  that  when  thou  art  dust, 
Still  shall  be  sweet. 

Never  let  words  decide, 
Flattery  disdain, 
Words  such  as  foster  pride 
Words  that  make  vain. 


304  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

XVII. 

ON  THE  BENCH. 

If  e'er  thou  art  a  Justice  of  the  Peace, 
Hear  all  the  poor  petitioner  will  say, 

Be  not  abrupt,  but  set  him  at  his  ease, 
Nor  cry,  "  You've  said  that  twenty  times, 
away ! " 

Indulgent  be,  so  shalt  thou  give  him  heart, 
And  he  the  object  of  his  suit  will  gain, 

Better  he  tell  what  led  unto  his  smart, 
Than  that  he  wearily  describe  his  pain. 

Be  not  abrupt  with  him  who  comes  to  law, 
To  disentangle  evidence,  be  kind, 

Abruptness  closes  the  complainant's  jaw, 
Patience  alone  will  open  all  his  mind. 

XVIII. 

ON  FALSE  LOVE. 

Do  you  wish,  sir,  respect  should  be  paid 
In  the  house  of  your  master — the  home 
Of  your  friend,  or  where'er  you  may  be ; 
Then  beware,  and,  on  entering,  see 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD  305 

That  you  make  no  advance  to  the  maid, 
No  good  of  such  courting  can  come. 

For  the  man  who  takes  part  in  that  game 
Is  a  madman  ;  what  thousands  destroy 
Themselves,  and  contentedly  seem 
To  risk  all  for  a  shadowy  dream, 
For  a  moment  of  pleasure,  win  shame, 
And  death,  bitter  death  for  the  joy  ! 

The  villain  who,  lust  all  afire, 
Of  set  purpose  to  flirting  will  fall, 
If  his  end  to  its  end  he  pursue, 
Lo  !  his  mind  will  abandon  him  too  ; 
He  who  does  not  contemn  such  desire, 
Scorn  such  act,  has  no  senses  at  all. 


XIX. 

ON  BAD  HUMOUR. 

If  an  even  course  and  good, 

You  desire,  from  evil  free, 
Keep  from  an  ill-humoured  mood, 

All  attacks  of  temper  flee, 
He  who  enters  to  that  mind, 
No  repose  on  earth  will  find. 

u 


306  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Evil  humour  discord  makes, 

'Twixt  the  father  and  the  mother, 

Bond  'twixt  wife  and  husband  breaks, 
Sets  the  girl  against  her  brother; 

Unto  it  all  sins  belong, 

All  embodiments  of  wrong. 

He  who  with  a  wise  man's  will, 
In  just  balance  of  his  thought, 

Weighs  the  worth  of  good  or  ill, 
Walks  thereafter  as  he  ought, 

Such,  where'er  he  chance  to  rest, 

Never  finds  ill-temper,  guest. 


xx. 

ON  IRRITABILITY. 

Keep  your  temper,  grumble  not, 
With  your  neighbour  be  not  cross, 
Speak  not  rudely,  oil  your  tongue, 
Compliment  is  gain,  not  loss ; 
He  who  prone  to  passion  hot, 
Of  his  words  no  longer  master, 
At  his  neighbour  raves,  is  wrong. 
Let  not  trifles  irritate, 
Being  vexed,  you  but  create 
Sorrow,  that  is  sure  to  stay, 
When  the  pet  has  passed  away. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD  307 

XXI. 

ON  CONJUGAL  FELICITY. 

If  thou  art  wise,  of  things  at  home  beware, 

Love  thou  thy  wife,  and  love  her  without  lack, 
Fill  thou  her  stomach  well,  well  clothe  her  back, 

This  for  her  person  is  the  chiefest  care. 

See  that  her  ointments  fail  not,  and  caress  her, 
Each  day  she  lives,  her  heart's  desire  fulfil, 
For  know,  that  honouring  his  lady's  will 

In  kindness,  honours  him  who  doth  possess  her. 

Never  be  brutal,  or  brute  violence  use, 
Tact,  it  is  tact  will  influence  her  desires, 
Think  what  she  aims  at,  and  to  what  aspires, 

What  she  regards,  and  what  she  most  would  choose. 

This  is  the  way  to  keep  her  heart  at  home, 
Repel  her, — lo  !  a  gulf  between  you  grows ! 
Call  her,  display  thy  love,  she  sees  and  knows, 

Open  thine  arms,  she  to  thine  arms  will  come. 

XXII. 

ON  KINDNESS  TO  DEPENDENTS. 

Treat  well  your  dependents,  if  able,  for  Heaven 
Who  granted  position,  gave  power  to  do  it, 


308  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

And  he,  who  no  grace  to  his  servants  has  given, 
Is  a  fool,  as  the  proverb  says,  certain  to  rue  it. 

For  who  of  us  knows  what  to-morrow  may  bring  him ; 

He  is  wise  and  well-balanced  of  heart,  who  is  kind 
To  dependents,  if  ever  hard  fate  try  to  fling  him 

And  he's  put  to  a  push,  then  the  good  he  will  find. 

For  then  the  retainers  he  kindly  entreated, 

Will  cry  out,  "  Come  on,  let  us  help  all  we  can." 

But  if  e'er  from  the  household,  kind  feeling  has  fleeted, 
They  will  fail  at  his  need,  and  then  woe  to  the  man  ! 


XXIII. 

ON  JUST  HEARING  AND  SPEAKING. 

When  men  you  hear  extravagantly  talking, 

Do  not  repeat  their  words,  nor  pay  them  heed, 
For  swelling  words  from  hasty  mouths  proceed ; 

And  if  repeated,  when  abroad  you're  walking, 
Look  on  the  ground,  say  nothing,  and  proceed. 

Just  be  your  speech,  and  speaking  justly,  cause 
Provokers  to  injustice,  truth  to  know ; 
Just  be  your  deed,  let  all  to  Justice  bow, 

But  to  condemn  things  hateful  to  the  laws, 

'Twere  best  from  off  their  face  the  veil  to  throw. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          309 
XXIV. 

ON  PUBLIC  SPEAKING. 

If  thou  a  wise  man  art,  and  chance  to  sit 
Within  the  council-chamber  of  thy  lord, 

See  that  thou  bend  thy  thought  to  what  is  fit, 
Be  silent,  not  too  prodigal  of  word. 

And  when  thou  speakest,  know  the  argument 
Counter  to  thine.     To  speak  in  public  well 

Is  art,  on  which  all  critics  are  intent, 

And  contradiction  best  its  worth  can  tell. 

xxv. 
ON  COMMAND  AND  SELF-COMMAND. 

If  thou  art  great  and  strong, 
Knowledge  and  calm  of  tongue 
Hold  in  thy  chief  esteem. 
Order,  but  with  command 
Show  the  directing  hand ; 
Never  dictator  seem, 
Hectoring's  wrong  ! 

Be  not  proud-hearted,  vain, 
Meanness  of  soul  disdain ; 


310  NOTES  FOR,  THE  NILE 

Speak  out  thine  orders,  see 
Thine  answers  penetrate ; 
Keep  coolness  in  debate, 
And  on  thy  face,  let  be 
Gravity  plain. 

Don't  burn  thyself  away, 
Gentleness  wins  the  day, 
Fuss  can't  enjoy  the  sun, 
Idlers  let  fortune  slip ; 
Don't  overload  the  ship ! 
Sit  thou  !  let  others  run, 
Others  obey ! 


XXVI. 

ON  THE  SECRETS  OF  SUCCESS  IN  WORK. 

Never  disturb  a  man  on  business  bent, 
Nor  with  distraction  weaken  his  intent, 
His  task,  not  you,  he  to  his  arms  would  take, 
Who  turns  his  sleeves  up  for  his  labour's  sake 
Love  for  the  work  in  hand  is  passport  given, 
To  wing  the  souls  of  human  kind  to  Heaven. 
But  be  composed  in  trouble,  smile  on  fate, 
Let  peace  be  yours  when  others  agitate ; 
For  they  who  labour  with  unruffled  calm, 
These  men  succeed,  they  carry  off  the  palm 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          311 
XXVII. 

ON  TAX  GATHERING. 

Teach  men  to  the  ruler  due  homage  to  tender, 
If  you  gather  the  taxes,  the  tax  in  full,  render 
To  him  by  whose  bounty  you  live ; 
But,  believe  me,  the  gift  of  your  master's  affection 
Is  more  than  all  food  and  the  ample  protection 
For  your  back,  that  his  favour  can  give. 

For  the  tax  he  receives,  to  your  household  is  able 

To  grant,  without  question,  good  lodging,  good  tabley 

And  all  things  that  your  station  requires  ; 

A  beneficent  hand  can  the  master  extend, 

And  add  to  your  goods  things  more  good,  without  end, 

By  the  tax  at  your  hand,  he  acquires. 

Your  love  in  the  hearts  of  who  love  you  instil, 

And  let  loving  obedience  wait  on  your  will. 

XXVIII. 

ON  TAKING  ORDERS. 

Are  you  enrolled  a  member  of  police, 
Son  of  the  guardian  of  our  public  peace, 
Then,  though  the  why  you  may  not  understand, 
Your  duty  do,  with  firmness  give  command. 


312  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Fulfil  instructions  just  as  they  were  sent, 

And  mind  the  words,  not  what  you  think  was  meant ; 

The  master  knows  why  so  the  order  ran, 

Yours  not  to  comment,  you  are  message-man. 


XXIX. 

ON  AVOIDING  THE  DISAGREEABLE. 

Friend,  if  anything  displease, 
And,  though  acting  in  his  right, 

Anyone  should  tease, 
Get  away  from  out  his  sight 
When  he  ceases  to  address  thee, 
Think  not  how  he  did  distress  thee, 

And  forget  his  spite. 


XXX. 

ON  HUMILITY  IN  HIGH  ESTATE. 

If  after  being  little  thou  art  great, 
And  riches  after  poverty  hast  gained, 

When  thou  art  come  unto  the  ruler's  state, 
Know  how  to  use  the  rank  thou  hast  attained. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD    313 

Let  not  thine  heart  be  hardened  by  high  place, 
Think,  these  good  things  God  doth  to  thee  but  lend, 

Put  not  thy  one-time  neighbour  from  thy  face, 
Be  still,  to  him,  as  equal  and  a  friend. 


XXXI. 

ON  CONTENT  AT  COURT. 

Bend  thou  thy  back  before  the  greater  lord, 
For  see, 

Once  get  to  Court,  thy  fortune,  bed  and  board, 
Are  bound  up  with  the  king's  prosperity, 
And  to  thy  station  shall  thy  gains  accord. 

But  this  remember,  that  in  high  estate, 

Annoy 

Comes  to  the  man  who  finds  some  one  more  great 

Put  o'er  his  head,  he  seems  to  lose  his  joy, 

Vexation  daily  doth  this  thing  create. 

It  cannot  harm  thy  soul,  though  it  may  tease 

To  hear, 

"  Shame !  do  not  rob  your  neighbour's   house,   nor 

seize 

By  violence  the  goods  that  may  be  near ! " 
Exclaim  not,  nor  be  hurt  by  words  like  these. 


314  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Nay,  keep  thy  temper,  and  though  hindered  sore 

Thou  be, 

Remember,  he  who  heavy  on  thee  bore, 

Is  bowed  himself  beneath  authority, 

And,  in  his  turn,  will  feel  its  weight  the  more. 


XXXII. 

ON  HIDDEN  SORROW. 

Do  not  make  mischief,  water  from  the  well 
Runs  only  down  the  trench  a  certain  way, 

But,  having  sunk,  none  can  its  secrets  tell, 
And  in  the  earth's  deep  bosom  it  must  stay. 

Let  it  not  be  that  having  dealt  a  smart, 

You  leave  the  wrong  to  rankle  in  the  heart. 


XXXIII. 

ON  COURTESY  IN  CONVERSATION. 

If  a  gentleman's  manners  are  yours, 

Do  not  shout  your  friend's  name  when  you  meet, 
Nor  talk  what  annoys  him  or  bores, 

But  see  that  the  subject  is  sweet. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          315 

Do  not  rush  to  discussions  at  once, 
To  his  mind  let  the  matter  first  sink, 

And  give  him  good  time,  for  the  nonce, 
On  the  gist  of  the  question  to  think. 

If  his  ignorance  come  to  the  fore, 

And  he  puts  himself  quite  in  your  hand, 

With  courtesy  treat  him  the  more, 

Do  not  corner  your  friend,  I  command. 

Never  taunt  him  with  words  of  reproach, 

Nor  answer  him  crushingly,  so 
Again  he  the  subject  may  broach, 

And  more  wise  for  your  talk  he  will  go. 


xxxiv. 
ON  WEARING  A  CHEERFUL  COUNTENANCE. 

Wear  a  look  of  contentment  and  pleasure ! 

When  we  see  a  man  leaving  the  Store, 
Who  has  come  to  contribute  his  measure 

Of  corn,  with  a  face,  sick  and  sore — 

His  stomach  is  empty,  it's  plain,  sir, 
By  that  look  when  he  went  on  his  way, 

To  rebel  at  our  laws  he  is  fain,  sir, 
Beware  his  example,  I  say. 


316  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

XXXV. 

ON  TRUE  WORTHINESS. 

Remember  those  who  faithful  to  thee  proved, 
When  thou  wast  poor  and  of  but  low  degree, 

Then  for  thine  honest  merit  wast  thou  loved, 

Thy  worth  was  more  than  those  who  honoured  thee. 

True  worth  is  what  a  man's  heart  doth  possess 
Entire,  completely,  as  none  other  can, 

More  than  his  rank  is  honest  worthiness, 
This  stays,  that  passes  on  from  man  to  man. 

A  child's  good  merit  profiteth  his  father, 
A  sire  his  own  son's  worthiness  may  thank, 

But  what  the  young  man  is,  we  honour  rather, 
Than  mere  remembrance  of  the  father's  rank. 

XXXVI. 

ON  WISE  DISCRIMINATION. 

The  master-man  who  doth  direct  the  toil 
Of  those  who  labour,  honour  him  the  most ! 

Whose  hand  is  soft,  and  little  used  to  soil, 
He  is  the  gentleman  ;  to  higher  post 

Who  climbs,  and  having climbed,would  keep  his  station, 

Let  him  beware  of  insubordination. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          317 
XXXVII. 

ON  WIFE  MANAGEMENT. 

If  you  wed,  to  wife  be  kind, 
Do  not  cross  her,  let  her  mind, 

More  than  all  her  fellows,  be  content. 
For  the  wife  who  finds  her  bond 
Pleasant,  will  be  doubly  fond. 
Do  not  e'er  repel  a  wife, 
Grant  her  anything  in  life ; 
In  her  own  contentment's  state, 
She  will  best  appreciate 

All  that  your  sweet  love's  direction  meant. 

XXXVIII. 

PTAH-HOTEP  SOLILOQUISES. 

These  are  the  sayings  that  I  counsel  thee, 
Hear  them,  and  in  thy  mind  shall  wisdom  be 
Fully  advanced ;  yet,  though  they  are  the  means 
Whereby  all  justice  and  all  truth  shall  reign, 
And  therefore  are  they  precious,  still  would  fade 
Remembrance  of  them  from  the  lips  of  men, 
But,  thanks  unto  my  careful  ordering 
And  rhythmical  arrangement,  all  these  words 


318  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Will  now,  unaltered  over  all  the  earth, 

Eternally  be  carried.     They  will  serve 

As  texts  to  be  embellished,  annotated, 

Whereof  the  great  will  speak,  and  in  the  schools 

Philosophers  instruct  men  in  their  sayings. 

The  scholar  having  listened,  will  become 

A  master-workman,  yea,  because  he  listened 

With  close  attention  when  he  heard  these  words. 

So  let  him  by  their  means  first  rank  attain, 

Position  perfect,  to  endure  for  ever, 

Place,  beyond  which  he  nothing  can  desire. 

For  lo,  by  knowledge  is  his  path  assured, 

By  knowledge  is  he  happy  on  the  earth, 

By  knowledge  has  his  soul  satiety, 

He  feels  by  his  own  merit,  he  is  great. 

His  mind  and  mouth  completely  in  accord, 

Just  are  his  words,  his  eyes  with  justice  see, 

And  justly  can  he  hear,  and  lo  his  son 

Does  justice,  through  these  sayings,  undeceived. 


XXXIX. 

PTAH-HOTEP  ON  ATTENTION  TO  PRECEPT. 

Attend  to  precepts  !  it  is  profitable 
Unto  the  son  of  him  who  has  attended ! 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          319 

From  listening  well  the  power  of  listening  grows, 
Fit  audience  forms  the  one-time  auditor. 
Good,  when  he  has  attended,  when  he  speaks, 
Good  also,  he  who  listened  well  has  gained, 
And  we  shall  gain  by  listening  unto  him. 
Attention  more  than  anything  is  worth, 
For  it  produces  love,  the  one  good  thing 
That  is  twice  good.    The  son,  who  doth  accept 
The  instruction  of  his  father,  will  grow  old, 
Long  in  the  land  his  days,  on  that  account ; 
For  what  God  loves  is  that  one  should  attend, 
If  one  attends  not,  that  doth  God  abhor. 
For  see,  the  heart  is  master  to  itself, 
Attends,  or  doth  not,  at  its  own  sweet  will, 
But  if  it  do  attend,  then  to  a  man, 
His  heart  is  master  most  beneficent. 
Attending  to  instruction  has  reward, 
For  what  he  gives  his  mind  to,  a  man  loves, 
And  doing  that  which  is  for  him  prescribed 
Finds  pleasure.     And  it  is  a  two-fold  joy 
When  that  a  son  attends  unto  his  father, 
For  then  if  wise  things  are  prescribed  to  him, 
The  son  is  gentle-minded  towards  his  master, 
Attending  to  the  man  who,  in  his  turn, 
Attended  to  like  things,  prescribed  to  him. 
Well  doth  the  son  engrave  upon  his  heart, 
Wise  sayings  that  his  father  has  approved ; 
For  so  the  recollection  of  it  runs, 


320  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Preserved  in  precept,  on  from  mouth  to  mouth 
Of  those,  who  have  their  being  upon  earth. 


XL. 
PTAH-HOTEP  ON  HOME  EDUCATION. 

Happy  the  sons  whom  fathers  educate, 
There  is  no  error  in  their  being's  plan ; 
Train  thou  thy  son  to  be  a  docile  man, 
Whose  wisdom  is  agreeable  to  the  great ; 
Let  him  direct  his  mouth  by  what  is  said, 
Docility  his  wisdom  doth  discover ; 
Conduct  in  him  grows  perfect,  day  by  day, 
While  error  casts  the  unteachable  away ; 
The  ignorant  and  fool  will  be  thrown  over, 
But  knowledge  shall  lift  up  the  scholar's  head. 


XLI. 
PTAH-HOTEP  ON  THE  UNTEACHABLE  AND  FOOLS. 

As  for  the  man  who  lacks  experience 
And  listens  not,  he  nothing  good  can  do. 
Knowledge  he  seems  to  see  in  ignorance, 
Profit  in  loss — to  mischief  he  will  go, 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          321 

And  running  in  the  error  of  his  ways, 

Chooses  the  opposite  of  what  men  praise ; 

And  so  on  what  is  perishing  he  lives, 

With  evil  words  his  belly  he  doth  fill, 

Yea,  thereat  is  astonied,  and  he  thrives 

On  what  great  men  think  vain,  shortlived,  and  ill, 

And  daily  from  things  profitable  flies, 

Misled  by  errors'  multiplicities. 


•XLII. 
PTAH-HOTEP  ON  TEACHING. 

Blest  the  son  who  doth  attend, 
He — a  follower  of  Horus — 
Rises  ever  to  his  end, 
And  in  greatness  goes  before  us, 
He  unto  his  children  gives 
Precepts  sure,  by  which  he  lives. 

On  his  father's  precepts,  none 
Ere  should  dare  to  innovate, 
Let  us  teach  unto  the  son 
What  our  father  did  dictate, 
So  the  children  shall  declare 
"  Wonderful  thy  precepts  are." 


322  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

Cause  thou  justice  then  to  flourish, 
Where  thy  sons  their  learning  take, 
Justice  so  their  souls  will  nourish ; 
But  if  teachers  truth  forsake, 
Witless  ones  who  hear  them  teach, 
Will  but  follow  in  their  speech. 

Docile  folk,  to  their  disaster, 
Do  what  teachers  say  they  must, 
All  the  world  cries,  "  Here's  a  master," 
And  the  public  give  their  trust ; 
But  much  sooner  than  will  please 

Lo  their  fame  and  glory  cease. 

• 

Qf  these  ancient  sayings,  brother, 
Add  no  word  nor  take  away, 
Put  not  one  thing  for  another ; 
Hidden  in  thine  heart  must  stay 
Rebel  thoughts  that  will  arise ; 
Teach  the  sayings  of  the  wise. 

Listen  thou,  if  thou  wouldst  dwell 
In  the  mouth  of  those  who  hear  thee  ; 
In  thy  teacher's  office — well 
They  who  listen  will  revere  thee, 
Hang  upon  thy  lips,  and  know 
That  from  a  master's  chair,  thy  wit  and 
wisdom  flow. 


THE  OLDEST  BOOK  IN  THE  WORLD          323 
XLIII. 

PTAH-HOTEP  ON  OBEDIENCE  TO  MASTERS. 

Think  much,  but  never  let  thy  mouth  run  on, 

Then  shalt  thou  argue  with  the  great  and  wise, 

But  put  thyself  in  union  with  the  way 

Of  him  thy  master,  so  that  when  he  cries 

"  This  is  my  child  " — then  those  that  hear  shall  say, 

"  Blest  be  the  mother  of  so  good  a  son  !  " 

Unto  thy  speech  thy  soul  of  souls  apply, 

Speak  perfect  things,  or  speak  thou  not  at  all, 

So  shall  the  great  who  listen  to  thee,  cry, 

"  Twice  good  is  that  which  from  his  lips  doth  fall." 

XLIV. 

PTAH-HOTEP  ON  OBEDIENCE  TO  FATHERS — 
His  LAST  WORD. 

Do  as  your  master  bids  you,  how  much  rather 

Know  thou,  my  son,  the  precepts  of  thy  father, 

Get  his  commands  by  heart,  to  please,  his  will, 

Beyond  the  letter  of  his  word,  fulfil, 

Truly  the  gift  of  God  is  a  good  son 

Who  doth  more  than  was  ordered  to  be  done. 


324  NOTES  FOR  THE  NILE 

He  strives  to  satisfy  his  master's  heart, 
With  all  his  might  doth  choose  the  better  part. 
So  shall  thy  body  healthful  be,  thy  king 
Will  be  content  with  thee  in  everything. 
Upon  thee  many  days  the  sun  shall  shine, 
And  length  of  years  without  default  be  thine. 
Wisdom  has  caused  me,  in  high  place,  to  live 
Long  on  the  earth,  a  hundred  years  and  ten, 
I  found  the  favour  that  a  king  can  give, 
First,  for  life's  labour,  honoured  amongst  men.* 


*  Colophon — It  is  finished,  from  its   beginning  to  its  end, 
according  to  that  which  is  found  in  writing. 


Printed  by  BALLANTYNK,  HANSON  AND  CO. 
London  and  Edinburgh. 


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